The Heart of Worship

Introduction

Worship means to give something worth or to ascribe to it value. It means to put it in its rightful place. You ascribe worth or give value to something by how much of your resources you spend on it, resources like time and money. True worship is based on a right understanding of God’s nature, and it is a right valuing of God’s worth.

Worship is not limited to just singing hymns and songs at church. Worship is not even limited to just singing songs to God. Worship that is merely formal actions is unacceptable. True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God above all things. Praise is the natural response of believers to God at all times and in all places, involving adoration in music and song. God himself assists believers to praise him through his spirit. Worship is turning to God in awe, praise and joy, as his people realize how wonderful he is. Prayer is a natural part of worship: to know God is to want to worship him and pray to him.

Singing specifically though is a gift from God that all believers should partake in when given the chance. To be in a worship and stand idly by and not partake in worship is grieving to God. Every Christian should partake in Praise and Worship and should never sit idly by when others are worshipping.

There are two kinds of singing worship.

There is corporate worship and there is private worship.

Communal is when you are with others, usually in a church service or a group setting, singing to God. And private is when you are alone, just you and your God and your singing to Him, like when you’re driving alone and jamming out to some elevation music. Both are necessary for the Christian. You should sing to God in corporate worship as often as possible and you should sing to God in private worship every opportunity you get.

Colossians 3:14–17 KJV 1900

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Thought

1) A Heart Full of Love Worships (v. 14)

Colossians 3:14 KJV 1900

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

a) The preparation for worship

What does it mean to put on charity? We know that charity just means love. In order to put love on, you must first put some things off. Look at verse 8

Colossians 3:8–10 KJV 1900

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

When you got saved, you became a new person, a new creature, a new man.

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV 1900

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Because Christ has made you into a new creature, you must put off the things of your former life, because that is not who you are anymore. You are a new person in Christ.

Ephesians 4:22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

So you are to put off the old way of life. It’s a command.

*Were gonna have a fashion show! **Illustration of clothes; putting off and putting on

That’s not who you are anymore. Look at verse 8 again in Colossians. You are not a person of anger, malice, blasphemy, how about this one: filthy communication, lying. You are to put these things off and put on the new things of Christ. And the most important character of Christ that you can put on, according to verse 14, is love. You must have love. You must be clothed with love.

And hey, people see clothes. People notice what your wearing. Whether its raggedy old hand me downs or brand new attractive clothes. And people will see what spiritual characteristics your putting on. People should see that you are putting on love.

2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV 1900

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

So all of this happens before we get to verse 16 where it says we are to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.

When I think of this verse I think of a sponge. You’re a sponge and you have soaked up all the love of Christ so much that when you are squeezed, His love just overflows and pours out of you.

The way that you can prepare for worship is by putting off the old man and putting on the new man, specifically Christ-like love. When you consider and realize Christ’s love for you, it should cause you to worship. Do you realize how much Christ truly loves you?

b) The person of worship

John 3:16 KJV 1900

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Christmas is coming up, where we celebrate Christ’s birth. Christ is the person of worship and the only person who deserves your worship. Christ loved you so much that he stepped off of his throne in heaven to come down and die for His creation, to die for you. Not only that but He humbled Himself enough and loved you so much that He became a baby. Do you realize the significance of that? He had to rely on His own creation for survival. He peed on Himself. He pooped on Himself. He could not feed Himself. The God who spoke the world into existence, breathed life into Adam, parted the red seas for Moses, shut the mouths of lions for Daniel, almighty God, became a human baby who could not even take care of Himself, all because He loved you and wanted to have a relationship with you.

All that love that Christ has for you should overflow and should be evident to others.

So we see that a heart full of love worships and is the preparation for worship.

2) A Heart Full of the Word Worships (v. 16)

Colossians 3:16 KJV 1900

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

a) The practice of worship

Letting God’s word dwell in you is a practice, it is a self-discipline. It takes some spiritual effort each day to get up and read the Bible and soak in all the wisdom that you can.

This is another way to prepare for worship. By reading God’s Word and meditating on it.

Meditating on Scripture carries the image of a cow chewing its cud, we’ve talked about this before.

A cow will eat the grass and hay in the morning and throughout the day he will regurgitate the grass and chew on it some more, then swallow it, then later he’ll regurgitate it and chew on it some more and then swallow it. And over and over again until he finally digests it. Meditating on Scripture is the same way. You ought to wake up and read it in the morning and then all throughout the day be thinking on it and dwelling on it and letting it transform and renew you.

The more you have dwelled on Christ and His Word, the more ready you will be for worship. The stronger desire you will have for praising Him. The more you meditate on Scripture, the more intimate that time of singing to God will be.

This is just another reason that we harp over and over on reading the Bible. It is vitally important to every aspect of your life. You need to make the decision daily to read God’s Word and have quiet time with Him, letting Him speak to you and you speaking to Him through prayer.

One person said it this way: If believers are to be transformed into the character of Christ, the Word of Christ should find a home in our hearts. It should not come and go, show up occasionally, or be something we visit like a vacation spot. It could be said this way: Let the word of Christ have the run of the house of your heart. Give it plenty of room. When the word of Christ finds a comfortable home in individual believers and in the new community, there will be positive instruction, correction, and worship evidenced by singing.

Here’s a song about Scripture:

Psalm 119:11 KJV 1900

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.

Memorize Scripture. Memorizing Scripture is a practice that we have lost in modern Christianity. Read Scripture, so you can meditate on it, so you can memorize it, so you can praise God for it.

So a heart full of love worships,

a heart full of the Word worships,

and

3) A Heart Full of Thankfulness Worships (v. 17)

Colossians 3:17 KJV 1900

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

a) The purpose of worship

Everything we do in this life should be for the God’s glory. The theological word for this is called a doxological purpose. Everything we do is for God and His glory alone.

So when we sing, its not for us. I heard a Pastor say one time a church member came up to him after a service one Sunday and said “man I just didn’t really like the worship this morning, the songs and the music, man just wasn’t my favorite”. And the preacher said “well, that’s good cause it wasn’t meant for you and your enjoyment!”

We can all look back to a certain time in life, when man we just had an awesome worship experience. Like God was in the room, the Holy Spirit was there just ministering. And it was such a good experience for us. But the goal of worship, is not to have a good experience. The goal of worship is... worship. When you chase the feeling of a good experience in a worship service and that’s your goal, you’re never gonna find it. But when you go into a worship service with the goal of worshipping, you will have one of those great intimate experiences with the Lord.

So our text says giving thanks to God. A heart of thankfulness worships. How can I become more thankful. The best way is to look at the previous points. I recognize God’s insane infinite love for me. And I read His word, His love letter to me and see how he demonstrated His love for me.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV 1900

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

You can be thankful for who God is and what God has done.

What do I mean by that. You can be thankful for who God is, His character and His attributes.

He is a loving father, a compassionate friend, He is infinitely good. He is completely Holy and righteous. He is completely just meaning upright and fair. He is merciful and faithful. He is patient and longsuffering toward us. He is immutable, He never changes. He is self sufficient and has no needs. He is omniscient and knows everything. He is omnipresent, always with us.

You can be thankful for who God is and you can be thankful for what He has done. Besides the fact of Him becoming a human and dying on the cross for our sins, its always a good thing to look back over your life to see what God has personally done for you.

James 1:17 KJV 1900

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

I’m thankful He has kept me alive, He got me through high school and college, He gave me an amazing wife and an amazing baby, He has given me an amazing ministry here in this amazing church. There are so many things we could be thankful for.

Because of our thankfulness to God, our natural response as spiritual beings is to praise Him. We should worship Him because we are thankful for who He is and what He has done.

Conclusion

So a heart full of love worships, a heart full of the word worships, and a heart full of thankfulness worships. Your heart should be full of love, the Word, and thankfulness, which means you should worship.

So what’s the application?

Fill your heart with love so you can worship.

Fill your heart with the Word so you can worship.

Fill your heart with thankfulness so you can worship.

And just decide to worship whenever you get the opportunity. Don’t take these opportunities of worship for granted. Don’t just go through the motions. Don’t just mouth the words. Don’t just let your mind wander, crack jokes, or cause distractions, man truly worship your Father in Heaven. Do not grieve Him when worship is taking place and you sit idly by not participating. Choose to worship your God.

(Verses to read during music)

Were gonna spend some time in worship, but first I want you to hear these verses

Psalm 95:1-6 1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

Isaiah 12:5 5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.

Hebrews 13:15 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

John 4:23 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."

Psalm 96:9 9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

Psalm 66:4 4 All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name."

Philippians 2:8-11 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This first songs says this:

When the music fades All is stripped away And I simply come Longing just to bring Something that's of worth That will bless your heart I'll bring you more than a song For a song in itself Is not what you have required You search much deeper within Through the way things appear You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship And it's all about you It's all about you, Jesus I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it When it's all about you It's all about you, Jesus

- That might need to be some of our prayers tonight. I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it, when its all about you, Jesus. Let’s sing