Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in the second week of the Christmas Season and the Series, Journey of Christmas.

Let me ask you some questions about your favorite things about the Christmas season.

How many of you would say that decorating is your favorite activity?

Not decorating but looking at other people’s decoration?

How many of you would say gifts?

giving gifts?

How many of you would say, the food?

Now we know what’s the most important… right?

It’s ion the word Christ mas

Christ - mas

or Christ Worship.

It’s all about worshiping Jesus and letting everyone know the most important thing about Christmas is Jesus Christ !

When you think about Christmas and worshiping Jesus at Christmas, centering on him at Christmas, we all sort of know in the back of our minds that there can’t be anything more important than that.

That’s what it’s all about.

But for a couple of reasons we often miss out on worship during the Christmas season .

One reason: We get too buys.

There is toooo much going on.

If you let it, it become a race betwen events… We try to pack everything we can into one month.

We re-decorate our houses, write cards to everyone we know, buy the perfect gift for each person on our list, and you bake things you don’t bake the rest of the year.

The rest of the year… your oven is the place where you store extra pans.

Then during this month, they decide to let the kids out of school for two weeks to make things interesting.

That’s one reason we don’t worship.

but there is another reason...

Sometimes… many times we really don’t know how to worship.

No One has ever shown us how to worship.

What is Worship?

Originally, it was worth ship

Worship = Worth ship

When you worship something you are saying something is worth… You can worship money, people, or you can worship the one who is worth the worship.

It’s the missing ingredient in our lives.

So what I want to do is take a few minutes together to worship Jesus.

That’s why you’re here – to focus in on him.

To do the most important thing you can do on Christmas.

To worship.

And when you worship it actually changes you.

So how do we get from here, where we are too busy to over there, where we are worshipping the Christ?

It’s like a map...

Let’s look at the worshippers on that first Christmas.

Let’s let the wise men guide us through a journey of worship.

1. Start with a sincere desire to worship

First thing is that you start with a desire to worship.

It’s simple, but if you don’t have a sincere desire to worship the Lord, you won’t.

You have to want it.

When you want it, Worship burst into the front door of your life.

The thing is, you have to go to HIS front door… just like these guys did.

Who were these guys?

The Magi or wise men were sort of political advisors.

They were experts in agriculture, math, history, astronomy and religion.

Because of this, they were the power behind the power,.

or the king makers of their day.

Thats why they were interested in a king that was about to be born.

They had heard a king was about to be born … a special king and they had come to worship him… not just to see him but to worship him.

For them it was a long and expensive journey that took months to complete.

These guys were not just curious, but they wanted to see this special king.

When you think of worship, one of the things is the desire to worship… kind of like the desire we all had a the Potluck and then at Thanksgiving last week.

But instead of physical need, I am talking about spiritual need.

Physical needs are satisfied in physical ways… spiritual ways are satisfied in spiritual ways and that’s what worship does.

One of the mistakes we all make is trying to fulfill a spiritual need in a physical way… How do you know you are hungry inside?

It’s when you feel empty inside.

You need something to fulfill you.

That’s a spiritual hunger.

Many times we try to satisfy this need in the physical realm so we: go shopping, we go out to eat; we drink or do drugs; we do things sexually we should not do…

This is where addictions come from… trying to satisfy a spiritual need through physical means.

It doesn’t and will never work.

What we need is what only ?God can give us… He is the only one who can fulfill these needs in our lives… the needs of emptiness… the need for connection.

Spiritual hunger must be fulfilled by spiritual means.

Because you have a desire to worship and because there is a hunger that has to be fulfilled, you will often find that when you read the Bible, you will read about God talking about a spiritual need in physical ways… so we can understand him.

He will talk about living water that only he can give… or taste and see…

Jesus is sayin that when you have a spiritual need, go to HIM.

You may think you can handle all by yourself, Go to Jesus.

The wise men came because they saw a message that they could trust.

It was a message about something they knew was real.

For them, they saw the star.

When you see a message that you can trust about filling your emptiness… loneliness… discouragement… depression, your need for strength, connection and fulfillment… You are drawn to that.

When you hear the message that the need can be met, we are drawn to it… we want it.

Sometimes you see it in other people.

You think, I wish I had their faith… their peace… their joy… their confidence… Don’t be jealous.

It’s revealing where there is a spiritual hunger in your life… and that need will be met through worship.

Let’s practice this worship

Right now in your mind just recognize this desire that you have and that God is the one who can meet this desire.

So in your mind you or say “God, I need your presence to fulfill my need for connection… God, I need your comfort to fulfill my need for hope and strength… God, I need your strength to fulfill my need for significance... God, I need you.

More than I realize – I need you.

These feelings that I have inside I want to connect with you.

Through worship I want to see you meeting those needs in new ways.”

That’s where you start.

With the sincere desire that recognizes worship is connecting with the one who made you.

When you do that needs are met in your life at deeper levels than you can imagine.

2. Develop a spirit of expectancy

You expect that Jesus will show up.

You expect God to show up…

This is called FAITH.

There is something about your faith that causes God to work in powerful ways… often more than you could have imagined.

When you expect to meet God in worship, you tend to meet God in worship.

The wise men came and they expected to meet Jesus.

There is no if, they expected to find and worship Jesus.

When they got to the right place, they expected to find Jesus and they were prepared to worship.

Listen, when you are on your way to worship service, begin to expect Jesus to show up in your life.

Talk to him and ask him to meet you in worship.

Most of us are just rushing in… can’t find a parking spot… when we do it’s across the street… the greeter was already gone… you register your kids and you finally get into the worship center and all you can think of is… I don’t care how bad pastor Robert preaches, I get free time for an hour ...

Raise your expectation that Jesus is here and you want to meet him.. to worship him.