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Today we are going to finish up the “Come to Worship” series.
This series was inspired by the wise men who traveled to worship the new born king who would rescue all nations, Jesus.
They traveled very far simply to worship.
They brought gifts and didn’t ask for anything in return.
Throughout this series we have been examining different postures of worship.
We talked about raising our hands, bringing our gifts, and bowing our knees.
This week we will wrap the series up by looking at a posture that we may not normally think of as a posture of worship.
Today we are going to look at “Pouring out our hearts.”
We aren’t going to just worship with our actions or even our mind, we are going to worship from the depths of our soul.
Maybe you have been growing closer to God lately and you feel like pouring out your heart to Him and praise Him for how good He is.
Perhaps you have been dealing with some tough news and you just need to pour out your heart and tell God about the pain you have been suffering.
Maybe during the Christmas holiday some of you were able to spend time with your family and you want to pour out your heart to God and thank Him for all of the wonderful blessings in your life.
Or you spent too much time with your family and when everyone finally left you wanted to thank Him for giving you peace and quiet again.
Maybe you’ve been dealing with a sinus and ear infection and you want to pour out your complaints and tell Him all about your troubles in a strongly worded letter!
As we kick off a new year, my hope and prayer is that we would approach this year with hearts full of worship, and no matter what we are facing we would come to Jesus to worship with honesty and openness.
It is such an amazing thing to me that we can approach God with anything and so comforting to know that He cares about our struggles.
How many times have you prayed and thanked God for the blessing of your family who you love and care about, then in the same prayer complain about them?
In the OT, David was no stranger to sharing his complaints with God.
At one of the low points in David’s life when he was running from Saul he hid in a cave and poured out his heart to God...
The word translated to complaints also means verbal lamenting or sad musing.
In other words, David is dumping all of his depression on God.
He is whining and telling God all of his sad thoughts.
He tells God all of his troubles, then he says...
He pours out his heart, he cries out to God, then he says something very special about God.
“You are my refuge.”
He says something very similar in Psalm 68 when he tells others to pour out their hearts to God...
Pour out your hearts to God, He is our refuge.
Cry out to God as an act of worship.
God loves when we turn to Him and realize that we need Him.
He loves to be needed.
No matter what you need to pour out to God, I promise you that He can handle it.
What I want to do today is give you a couple of things to think about when you cry out to God in worship.
AS YOU POUR OUT YOUR HEART
REMEMBER GOD’S FAITHFULNESS IN THE PAST.
Have you ever experienced a blessing that you never thought would come?
You waited and waited for something important for what felt like an eternity before you finally got the good news.
maybe what you went through along the way was horrible.
It was so bad that you found yourself just praying for a way out of the pain and suffering.
Praying for relief from the stress.
But now you can look back and see how things have changed and how faithful God was to you.
You can even look back and find all the small ways God was being faithful in that time even though you felt abandoned during the tough time.
We don’t know for sure who wrote Psalm 42, but most scholars believe it was probably David whenever Absalom, his son, had rebelled against him and a lot of people believed that God had turned against him.
If this was written by David, he was at a very low point in his life and in verse 3 he says this...
I have tears for breakfast, there’s a tear in my beer, and I cry myself to sleep.
If you’ve been there, you know how physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining times like this can be.
Then he continues, “As I cry out to You, I remember Your faithfulness in the past”…
“These things I remember as I pour out my soul.”
As you pour out your soul, what are some things you can remember about God?
One of the things I have been pouring out my soul about is my schedule.
My brother is the type of person who gets energy from having a long To-Do list, but I am exactly the opposite.
I don’t stress easy, but if I don’t have a clean To-Do list that is easy to clear off frequently I tend to get stressed.
For some reason the last 4 to 6 months have been so busy that I feel like I have been going from one thing to another.
It doesn’t help that since September I have spent more time sick than well.
That being said, our friends from OKC happened to move down here during that time.
I am very excited about them moving, but at the same time the part of me that can’t handle scheduling chaos started going a little crazy.
One day we were driving to work and Chris, my friend, asked me how we became such good friends.
So I started REMEMBERING God’s faithfulness in the past.
We met while serving together at LifeChurch in OKC.
I got relive that experience in my life when God was doing so many amazing things.
That also happened to be another time in my life that was chaotic.
Remembering God’s faithfulness in that time encouraged and empowered me with my new chaotic schedule.
Why am I letting this get to me?
Why am I so downcast?
Put your hope in God! Remember how good He is.
He’s always been there for you.
After the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah retired to a cavern outside of the Damascus gate where he wrote the book of Lamentations.
If anyone had something to cry out about, it was him.
For 20 verses in chapter 3 he just goes on and on pouring out his heart to God.
He lays out the pain and anguish he has felt as a result of God’s anger.
Sometimes we are afraid to talk to God the way Jeremiah does here.
We feel like it is disrespectful to God.
Look, if you already feel this way, saying it out loud to God doesn’t somehow make it worse.
God already knows your heart.
He loves to be needed.
I believe God would rather us be open and honest with Him than lie to avoid offending Him.
Jeremiah is complaining about all these awful things God did, but watch as he shifts when he remembers God’s faithfulness...
I remember God’s faithfulness, therefore I have hope!
Even though this moment is awful beyond my ability to describe, I have hope when I remember this...
As you pour out your heart to God remember His faithfulness.
Remember that His love is never ending.
Remember how forgiving He is.
Remember what He has already done for you in the past.
Second...
AS YOU POUR OUT YOUR HEART
TRUST IN GOD’S POWER FOR YOUR FUTURE.
The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 102 poured out his heart to God.
He was overwhelmed with trouble, but he poured out his heart and trusted in God’s power for his future...
The Psalmist is pouring out their heart to God.
Hear my prayer, God.
I need you now more than ever!
This difficult time is wearing me out.
I feel alone and helpless and don’t know how much more I can take.
But we are about to see how 3 words can change everything.
We may be facing the most difficult moment in our lives, but these 3 words alone may be the only reason God wanted you to be here today.
“But you, LORD”… My life is falling apart, but you LORD.
I don’t understand, but you, God, are faithful.
I don’t have the ability, but you, God, can.
I don’t have the strength, but you, God, are strong.
I can’t fix this, but you, God, can change anything.
My enemies mock me…
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