Having A Heart Of Worship

Today’s message, we’re going to be talking about worship. This is something at may appear to be simple, but yet it’s much more complex that you may think. Worship in the NIV bible is mentioned 256 times. The definition of worship is to show reverence or adoration towards God. When you want to show someone that you love them, you do everything within your power to please them, the same goes for God. everything we do, should be to please God. Most importantly it should be from our hearts. If it’s not from our hearts then it’s not worship. Our love and adoration for God should be shown through more than just singing. Telling others about God and his glory is another way of worship! Furthering our relationship with God is a way too. Psalms 91:1-9 starts with Sing to the Lord! Not just sing about the Lord, but to Him! Anyone can go about talking about God until they’re blue in the face, but worship is more than just what we say or do. When we worship God, it should turn our eyes are hearts toward Him.

Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then lord chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, "Neil!" Not daring to question or disobey the "command," the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees! 

The band didn’t think about what they were told to do, they respected this man so much they did what he said. Our worship is our of obedience and dedication to the Lord, just as these men obeyed their “lord”. They didn’t think about it just as We shouldn’t have to think about our worshiping. If our hearts and turned in the right direction, then worshiping isn’t a problem.

But there are things in life that can cause road blocks within our hearts. A big one that gets in the way is when we’re going through tough times. When something bad happens the last thing on our mind is worshiping God. I know that’s the thing in my case. When everything happened, I wanted nothing to do with God. I said nope, I’m not doing it. You messed up my planned out future, I’m not talking to you. That caused me to stumble a bit in my spiritual life. My depression hit me again, and it took a lot for me come back to even wanting to worship God. I’ve identified that road block in my life and I chose God over my anger. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says “He said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me”. This verse really hit me hard. God will use our hard times, and can show us a greater power. He will reveal more about himself to us if only we’re open to receiving them. I wasn’t ready to accept what had happened. God reveals to me more through music that any other way I’ve discovered, and I really had to force myself to take in what He had to say. It’s like this for everyone going through tough times, not just me. It’s hard to jump back into things. But Through our weakness, God is strong and will reveal more. ?But what if we’re not going through hard times? Then what kind of roadblock might we have? Well, it could be you’re making excuses. You can only get out of worship what you put in. Getting into a comfort zone in my opinion is dangerous for our spiritual life. We as humans don’t like change, but God can reveal so much out of change! We need to open to experiencing God through it! I didn’t get anything out of the service because I don’t like that Emily girl, or I did’t feel God because I didn’t like that praise and worship song. Gosh those kids were noisy. Those are all excuses!! If we’re not putting in the work to prepare for what God wants us to get no matter what happens through the service, then we’re going to miss something. God isn’t just going to hit us with a ton of bricks! There have been times where looking back I can see God working in the moment, but at the time I couldn’t. I missed God at that time because I did’t put in the work and I made excuses as to why “I didn’t feel it”

Think of it this way: A friend of mine tells me about a bank that has a special offer; if I invest with them I'll get 25% interest. I think, "Yeah, that sounds okay. But I don't want to tie up a lot of money." So I invest $10,000. But my friend invests $100,000. At the end of the year he rings me up and says, "Hey, guess what? You know that bank investment? I made $25,000." "You made $25,000?" So I jump on the internet, check my account, and can you believe it, I've only made $2,500? I go racing down to the bank, march up to the counter and say, "Hey, what gives? How come my friend made $25,000 and I only made $2,500? That's discrimination ..." "How much did you invest?" "$10,000." "And how much did your friend invest?" "$100,000." "Well then, the answer's pretty obvious, isn't it? The more you invest, the more you make.”