2/12/17
Intro
How do we go to higher ground in our worship? That has been our theme for the last couple of messages. We found first that worship must proceed from the heart—from our innermost being. Jesus put it this way in John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”1 The most fundamental issue in worship is the condition of the heart. In Luke 7 we have an example of pure worship: a woman who bows at Jesus feet and out of pure gratitude for His mercy washes His feet with her tears, wipes them dry with her hair, and anoints Him with costly, fragrant oil.
With the foundation that we have laid, today I want to share Five Ways to Enhance Your Worship Experience. They are actions that you have to take in order to benefit from them. Just knowing about them doesn’t help much. Implementation is everything. But there are some things you and I can do if we want enhanced worship experience. My focus this morning is on our corporate, public worship experience. What can each of us do to make our gathering together in worship more rewarding?
I. Be CONSISTENT in your pursuit of God and in your worship.
Practice worship during the week, so that you are already in touch with God when you come to the corporate meeting.
God instructed Moses on how to build the tabernacle. There was first an outer court, then a holy place, then the Holy of Holies. God’s manifest presence was in the Holy of Holies on the Mercy Seat. Nobody just walked right into Holy of Holies. There were preparations. Coming into God’s presence was not something to be taken lightly. Even the priests had to wash themselves and put on holy garments in order to function in the Holy Place. The instruction in Ps 29:2 is “Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” God taught Israel to approach Him with reverence because He is holy. There was an appropriate procession into intimacy with God. It began in the outer court, proceeded to the Holy Place, and culminated in the Holy of Holies.
When we come together we proceed toward God from where we are when we begin. So if I have been walking in the Spirit all week, I can move into spiritual worship easily and quickly. On the other hand, if my mind has not been set on the things of the Spirit all week, then I have a huge adjustment to make as the congregation draws near to the Lord in worship. The process of drawing near to God in our worship is affected by the spiritual condition of everyone in the room. It’s a reality that we can’t ignore. The first few songs are usually a process of just trying to get us all on the same page entering into the corporate presence of God.
God corrected Israel for thinking they could live one way all week; then enjoy His favor at the Temple by simply switching to a more religious mode. Listen to what He told Israel in Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.” God gave them a similar message through Isaiah in Isaiah 1 and 58.
Living out of step with God all week long is not the right preparation for an awesome worship service on Sunday morning. It’s actually an exercise in hypocrisy and invites a religious spirit rather than the Holy Spirit. It’s like the Pharisees who loved to say long prayers in public to be seen of men (Matt. 6:5). God’s favor simply cannot rest on that. It doesn’t matter how talented the band is or how many people are in the building, if that is going on, God is not pleased. I don’t think we are doing that.
But we can be more conscientious about practicing the presence of God throughout the week. Just being mindful of Him; talking with Him throughout each day; worshipping Him during the week prepares us for corporate worship. In Psalm 145:2 David said, “Every day I will bless You….” It’s a good way to start your day. He even said in Psalm 119:164 “Seven times a day I praise You….” The idea here is worship as a lifestyle, not just something I do once a week on Sunday morning.
So the most important preparation for Sunday morning is how we live all week long.
II. Be EXPECTANT
God has made us some promises in His word that should create expectancy when we come together. Let’s begin with Jesus’ promise in Matt 18:19-20 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” There are two essential keys in verse 20. The first is the phrase “gathered together.” We unite with one another in unity. I’m going to talk more about that next week. Secondly, the phrase “in My name” qualifies the meeting for the blessing. Just because a crowd of people come together in a room, does not guarantee the authority of Christ’s presence being spoken of in this passage. But when even a few gather in His name: they have come under His authority and they have come unto Him—then He is there in the midst of them.
So we look forward to gathering together in His name—because in a special sense He is there in the corporate gathering. The fact that He is there heightens our anticipation of what might happen.
We come together in corporate worship for the purpose of drawing near to the Lord. And what does God say about that? James 4:8 “…Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” So we are anticipating the nearness of the Lord because He has promised to do that.
Faith expects God to be there and meet with us. God expects and acts on the fact that God will honor His word. God had given Israel some wonderful promises about Canaan Land. He promised to be with them as they conquered the land. It was theirs for the taking; but they did not enter into those promises. Why, because of unbelief. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Without a genuine expectation of Jesus being in our midst and honoring His promises, we are not able to experience what might have been. Therefore, we consider the goodness of God. We consider the faithfulness of God. We ponder the promises of God. And we come expecting to meet with God. Amen?
I read a story the other day about the missionary Hudson Taylor. He was on a sailing vessel, very close to the shore of a cannibal island. There was no wind so the ship was drifting toward the shore of the island. The savages were eagerly anticipating their arrival and the feast that would follow. The ship’s captain was in a bit of a panic and asked Hudson Taylor to pray for God’s help. Hudson told the captain that he would if the captain would set the sails to catch the breeze. Since there was no breeze, the captain did not want to look like a fool by setting the sails. But Hudson was unmovable in his resolve and told the captain he would not pray unless the captain set the sails. The captain relented and Hudson Taylor went below deck to pray. Shortly thereafter Hudson heard the captain shouting to him, “Are you still praying for wind?” “Yes.” “Well you had better stop praying; we have more wind than we can manage.”2 We want the wind of the Spirit and we set our sails in expectancy to receive it.
Be Consistent; Be Expectant
III. Be INTENTIONAL
We come together for a purpose. The more clear we are about that purpose, the better. We have gathered to exalt and worship the Lord. Our primary objective is to meet with God and give Him the glory due His name. It’s primarily about God, not us.
We used to sing a song quite often that went like this.
We bring the sacrifice of praise Unto the house of the Lord. We bring the sacrifice of praise Unto the house of the Lord. And we offer up to You The sacrifices of thanksgiving; And we offer up to You The sacrifices of joy.
It was a good reminder of what we came for.
In the Old Testament people brought bulls and goats as their sacrifice. God no longer requires that of us because Jesus offered up the ultimate, final blood sacrifice. But Heb. 13:15 does identify a sacrifice we bring to God in our worship. “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” The sacrifice we bring to God is the sacrifice of praise, “that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Have you ever been so down you just didn’t feel like praising the Lord? That is a good time to offer God the “sacrifice” of praise. As we mature in the Lord we learn to do what’s right, regardless of how we feel. We learn to let our decisions lead our emotions, and not vice versa. The Bible commands us to praise the Lord. It does not add the qualifier, “if you feel like it.” There are many times when we feel like it. But we don’t do it just because we feel like it. We worship the Lord because Scripture tells us to do it.
Ps 100:4 “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
Ps 106:1 “Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
David said in Ps 57:7 “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.” The KJV says, “My heart is fixed.…” Determined to praise and worship the Lord!
We prepare for that purpose. In 1 Chronicles David assigned responsibilities for the worship to the priests and Levites. Solomon followed through with that at the dedication of the temple in 2Chron 5. Starting with verse 11, “And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions), 12 and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets -- 13 indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying: ‘For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,’ that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”
I just want to point out a couple of things from that passage.
(1) a lot of preparation went into the service. The Levites had their assigned responsibilities; they prepared themselves for the job, and worshipped God together. The worship was well planned and coordinated. Verse 13 says when they were “as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord.” It was not haphazard. There was an investment made in advance.
(2) God’s glory came down in the midst of the worship.
We try to find a healthy balance of preparedness and spontaneity. Without adequate planning things get sloppy and it leaves the door open for the enemy to bring in confusion. However, we also want to give room for the Holy Spirit to direct everything during the service. So when He prompts us to go off script, we want to obey that leading.
How can you enhance your worship experience? Be intentional about why you came. Come with a determination to give glory to the Lord. Offer Him the sacrifice of praise regardless of how you feel.
Worship is primarily for God. When we keep that as primary and He shows up, then wonderful things happen in people’s lives. God inhabits the praises of His people. In Psalm 22:3 David said, “But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.” When we praise God with pure hearts, we provide a platform for God’s presence. We are inviting Him to meet with us. We are positioning ourselves to receive His presence—because worship is the right posture for enjoying the presence of God.
Motive is very important. We must be worshipping God for the right reason. It should come out of a heart of gratitude and respect toward Him. Worship is not a way to manipulate God to do what we want Him to do. If we want to go into higher worship so that we will have His presence and can use that to be a “successful” church, it won’t work and shouldn’t work. But if we simply worship Him because He is worthy of our worship—if we worship Him out of a heart of love and appreciation—He will meet with us and we will be blessed.
Be Intentional.
IV. Be FOCUSED.
This naturally flows out of our previous point.
Anytime you pursue God, the Devil will make sure there are plenty of distractions to take you off course. We learn to keep our minds on what we’re doing and dismiss the distractions. Sometimes the distractions are thoughts that pop in our mind: I need to add milk to my grocery list, I forgot to turn the thermostat down, etc. We have to cast those thoughts down and keep our minds stayed on the Lord. Sometimes the distractions are just things that happen around us: a baby cries, a door slams, someone sneezes, etc. When things like that happen, and they will, keep on worshipping.
When people are not really pressing into worship, any little distraction will take them off course. When people have resolutely decided to worship the Lord they are not easily distracted.
Kathryn Kuhlman was criticized in 1968 when she was ministering for Pat Robertson to a crowd of over 3,000 people. Shortly after the service began a row of bleachers broke loose and fell back against the wall. Many people fell to the floor; some were suspended in the air. The emergency squad came and carried some away on stretchers. Yet, Miss Kuhlman never stopped carrying on with the service during the whole event.3 She came with a purpose and even that did not distract her from the purpose. It’s an extreme example; but it raises the question—what does it take to distract you from worship?
We do a lot of work in preparing for the worship service. Bryan and Devan have worked hard to get our sound system working well. Our musicians work to play skillfully. Ps 33:3 tells us to “play skillfully.” Why is all that important? First, because we want to give God our best. But also to facilitate worship in a way that minimizes distractions, so that people can stay focused on the Lord. When there are sound problems, it’s a distraction. When we hit a wrong note, it can be a distraction. We are not striving to play skillfully so that the crowd will be impressed with a performance. We want to simply facilitate people’s interactions with the Lord. That’s one reason we want humble people up here ministering in the music. We’re here to lift up Jesus, not individual talent. Proud people need attention and can distract from the purpose. Needy people need attention. We want people leading who don’t need attention, because the attention must be on Jesus.
When you’re singing a song, think about what you’re saying. It’s easy to just mindlessly mouth the words. But if we are to worship from the heart, we have to consider the import of what we’re saying. If I’m singing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” I want to think about the kind of friend He has been to me. I want to have meaning behind the words. If I’m singing, “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” I want to think about what His sacrifice did for me. If I’m singing, “There’s power in the name of Jesus, There is power in the name of Jesus, Break every chain, Break every chain” then I am applying that word to my own life. I am believing for some chains to be broken. It’s not just the words coming out of my mouth, but also the thoughts behind those words.
Worship is an interaction with God. We are beholding His glory and there is transformation that takes place when we do that. 2 Cor. 3:17-18, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Here is the wonderful effect worship has on the worshipper: a transformation from glory to glory. When we see the beauty of the Lord we desire that, and God rubs off on us in the best of all possible ways. Worship is a great opportunity to get life in its proper perspective. We all deal with a lot of junk going through this crazy world. Some of it starts looking bigger than it really is. When we lift our heads and get a little glimpse of the Eternal God most of that stuff just melts away in His presence. “In His presence is fullness of joy” (Ps 16:11). We see how minor everything is in the light of eternity. We see how sufficient He is to resolve every problem we encounter. We enter into His rest. Be focused.
V. Be ENGAGED—spirit, soul, and body.
We must worship God from our spirit, but it doesn’t stop there. Every part of us needs to be engaged in the worship experience. You may even have to have a little talk with yourself like David did. Listen to him in Ps 103:2 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits.” Have you ever had to remind yourself of God’s goodness to you? Have you ever had to tell your soul to think about the good things God has done? Emotions follow choice. Emotions follow thought. Think about His love. Think about the healing you have received, the forgiveness of sin, the hope that lies in you. Engage your mind and emotions in the process of blessing the Lord.
We get out of worship in proportion to what we put into it. Ps 111:1 “Praise the LORD! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.” God deserves wholehearted worship and nothing less. Put your whole being into it. It’s a mistake to think others must get you into a right emotional state before you can obey the Lord. We are commanded in the word of God to sing unto the Lord. We are commanded to praise the Lord. We are commanded to give thanks to the Lord. We shouldn’t have to be in any particular emotional state to obey those commands. We do it as an act of the will. Then we say to our emotions, “Get on board, bless the Lord oh my soul—emotions and all.” Is God telling you to worship Him? Here’s the answer in Ps 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!” If you are breathing you are called upon to praise the Lord.
Worship involves our physical actions, as well as our thoughts and emotions. Scripture commands us to lift our hands, clap, bow, stand, etc. In 85 places we are directed to sing.4 We are exempted from none of those activities. One reason Charismatics stand during a worship service is that it is conducive to full involvement spirit, soul, and body. But there are a variety of physical acts that serve to express our worship to the Lord. The primary word for worship in the New Testament is proskuneo. It corresponds to the Old Testament word “shawkhaw.” Both words mean to prostrate oneself or stretch out with face on the ground. It is a posture of submission and adoration.5 When David danced before the Lord his wife, Michal, got upset because it didn’t look dignified enough. David basically said I’m not worried about looking dignified. I am worshipping my King.6
Why is the physical important? What we do physically reinforces what we have chosen to do in the soul. There needs to be a unity, a wholeness, spirit-soul-body in our worship activity.
Rom. 12:1 in the Phillips translation says, “With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable to him.”
In the next two messages I want to deal with two more ways we enhance our worship experience:
(1) Be United. Our relationships and our level of unity are very important to God and significantly affect our corporate worship.
(2) Be Sensitive to the Holy Spirit during your worship. You are speaking to God; but He will likely speak to you as well. It’s an interaction with the Lord. Our obedience to the Lord during the worship time can mean the difference between grieving the Holy Spirit and experiencing a major breakthrough. We will talk more about those factors in the future.
Let me summarize the five points we have covered; practical tips for increased worship satisfaction.
(1) Be consistent. Make it something you do throughout the week and not just on Sunday morning.
(2) Be expectant. Mediate on the promises of God to be with us. Come expecting to meet with God!
(3) Be intentional. Come with the express purpose of meeting with God.
(4) Be focused. Don’t allow distractions to take you away from your worship.
(5) Be engaged. Put yourself in your worship spirit, soul, and body. Do what the Bible tells you to do regardless of how you feel about it.
Did God impress one of those points on your heart today? I want you to take a moment and ask the Lord what He wants you to do with this message. What is one thing you will work on this week? Will it be more attention to practicing the presence of the Lord throughout the week? Will it be more focus on your purpose for coming to church? Will it be less dependence on emotion and more commitment to obedience to what the Lord has said in His word? Take a moment and talk to the Lord about that.
Invitation
END NOTES:
1 All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
2 1493 Setting the Sails, Oriental and Inter-American Missionary Standard as quoted in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, by Paul Lee Tan (Rockville, Maryland: Assurance Publishers, 1985) p. 403-404.
3 Roberts Liardon, God’s Generals: Why They Succeeded and Why Some Failed (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing, 1996) p. 303.
4 Jack Hayford, Worship His Majesty: How Praising the King of Kings Will Change Your Life (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2000) p. 50.
5 Ibid. p. 151.
6 2 Samuel 6.
