Intimate Worship

Intimate Worship

Ps 42:1-4 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

• Yearning to come into the presence of God?

• What is good worship?

o some songs you liked?

o Music that moved you?

o Or is it that you met with God?

Several years ago, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks did a comedy skit called the “2013 Year Old Man”. In the skit, Reiner interviews Brooks, who is the old gentleman. At one point, Reiner asks the old man, “Did you always believe in the Lord?” Brooks replied: “No. We had a guy in our village named Phil, and for a time we worshiped him.” Reiner: You worshiped a guy named Phil? Why? Brooks: Because he was big, and mean, and he could break you in two with his bare hands! Reiner: Did you have prayers? Brooks: Yes, would you like to hear one? O Phil, please don’t be mean, and hurt us, or break us in two with your bare hands. Reiner: So when did you start worshiping the Lord? Brooks: Well, one day a big thunderstorm came up, and a lightning bolt hit Phil. We gathered around and saw that he was dead. Then we said to one another, “There’s somthin’ bigger than Phil!”

I. What is intimate worship?

a. Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

b. When he goes out to the mount of Olives to pray before he was arrested, It says “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives” (Luke 22:39)

c. It speaks of this great intimacy between Jesus and the Father.

d. It’s like when you find a good friend at a party and you just have to get them away everyone else and have some quiet conversation, and just enjoy their presence.

e. The story goes that one time when Bill Moyers was a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was asked to say grace before a meal in the family quarters of the White House. As Moyers began praying softly, the President interrupted him with “Speak up, Bill! Speak up!” The former minister from east Texas stopped in mid-sentence and without looking up replied steadily, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.”

II. We can have that same intimacy with God in worship

a. David seems to be our prime example of intimate worship.

b. He could be completely lost in the moment of worship, so much so that he would dance before the Lord.

c. I have known people who could come into a small worship setting, spread their arms out before God and just be lost in the moment. They were truly worshiping God with their whole heart, their whole being. God wasn’t ‘out there’. They were worshipping intimately. God was close, God was present in response to their adoration.

d. Intercession=parga = impact, collision with God, where we are changed.

e. Car crash

f. It is more than just prayer. Intercession is ‘meeting’ God face to face and we are changed.

g. At its base, what we call “intimate worship” is worship that is fully aware, desiring, and open to God’s presence.

h. It is obeying the first and greatest command: to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength – Deuteronomy 6:6

i. God is not at a distance. God is close.

j. When we come to worship, isn’t it awe-inspiring that we can be with God ‘up close and personal’?’

k. Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of Grace with confidence.”

l. The desire of my heart is to speak intimately with God.

III. Intimacy with God is a heart issue.

a. The brilliant scientist Sir Isaac Newton said that he could take his telescope and look millions and millions of miles into space. Then he added, “But when I lay it aside, go into my room, shut the door, and get down on my knees in earnest prayer, I see more of Heaven and feel closer to the Lord than if I were assisted by all the telescopes on earth.”

b. What is the attitude of your heart to God?

c. Is your heart keeping God at a distance?