Spiritual Discipline Of Worship (Part 2) Series

Spiritual Disciplines - Worship (2)

July 18, 2021

I have to admit that sometimes I actually listen to my wife! When it comes to Sunday mornings, as a pastor, sometimes it’s hard to worship. There’s lot of distractions. Lots to think about and consider. Is everything all set? How’s the sound? The videos? The slides? What about the temperature? Is FB live working? Am I even ready to preach? Did I forget something or someone? It all builds up until I can’t worship . . . because I’m focused on so many other things.

She reminds me “there’s nothing you can do about any of that?” And she’s right!! After all, if something isn’t working . . . honestly, they don’t want me to touch it. I’ll make it worse. I’m not quite there yet, better I am better than I used to be. So, that’s my weekly excuse.

What’s yours? Do you have something that gets in the way of worship? Was it the kids? Your spouse? A friend? Your job? A crazy week? A bad doctors report? Aches and pains? Maybe it’s depression or loneliness - issues nobody can see. Sometimes, there’s something that gets in the way of our worship.

And that doesn’t even include issues in worship! The music, the message, the temperature, the prayers, you were forgotten, there was a mistake . . . and the list goes on and on.

We’ve been looking at spiritual disciplines for awhile now. Today is the second week of looking at worship as a discipline. If you’re like me, you need to discipline yourself. You can’t just turn it on whenever you feel like it. In reality, you need to be prepared for worship.

Let’s continue to look at what worship is.

Firstly and most importantly, worship is not about us. It is not about what I want or what makes me happy. Worship is about my response to God’s character and presence in my life. In other words, I come here and thank God for who He is.

I look at the characteristics of God . . . LOVE, GRACE, JOY, PEACE, MERCY, PATIENCE, COMPASSION, POWER, PROTECTION and many more what we might call God’s attributes. As I worship I thank God and recognize God’s grace in forgiving my sins, for sending Christ to love me and die for me, I come ready to say thank you to God for His compassion and never ending love, His promise never to abandon me. I come wanting to thank Him for His acts of mercy, for His creativity, for so many different ways I have been blessed because of who God is.

I also recognize how God is present in my life. Even in those moments when I pull away from God, when I become rebellious, I know God is with me. He’s promised to be with us forever. To do that He sent His Holy Spirit, so that when Christ ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit could be with each one of us, all at the same time. It’s something I cannot explain, I take it on faith, and I thank and praise God for being with me, my family, and you, every nano-second of everyday.

In his book, Celebration of Disciplines, Richard Foster wrote,

"Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. It is kindled within us only when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit. Our spirit must be ignited by the divine fire . . . When Spirit touches spirit the issue of forms is wholly secondary."

I love that! When God’s Spirit touches our spirit, it leads us into worship. There’s a huge caveat with this, however - - - it means we need to be practicing the disciplines so that we can experience God’s Spirit. That’s really what this entire series has been about.

Because we’ve experienced God’s Spirit, because we’ve experienced and trusted in His presence, we come to worship with a desire to experience His power and presence as we give ourselves to Him in worship.

What Foster says is really important because - - - even though we have our preferences . . . when the Holy Spirit touches your spirit the issue of forms is secondary. That means we worry less about the music and message and the temperature and announcements and all the extraneous stuff and focus on the Spirit of God at work in this place.

In Revelation 5, we read ---

11 Then I (John) looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.

12 In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"