Intimate Worship March 17, 2002
Psalm 42:1-2,4
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
4 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.
Isn’t that how you felt this morning? Yearning to come into the presence of God? Desperate to come to Church to be amongst the worshiping crowds?
Today we are going to continue along the line that Hana Started last week, and talk about intimate worship.
Introduction
What is good worship? – some songs you liked? Music that moved you? Or is it that you met with God?
How do you characterize your worship time here and at home?
– From a distance, or close at hand? If you look at the Temple in Jesus’ time there were different courts, the court of the Gentiles, Israelite Women, Israelite Men, the actual temple (just for the Priests) and then the Holy of Holies – Where are you when you worship? Jesus paid the price so that we can enter the Holy of Holies. Are you there?
– When you worship, is itAll head or is there heart? How much passion is there for God?
– Focused on God? Or on you? Do the words of the song focus on you and your needs, or are they centred on adoration of God?
What is intimate worship?
- 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.” There are a number of times that we read about Jesus stealing away to be with his Father. 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) It speaks of this great intimacy between Jesus and the Father.
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.
We can have that same intimacy with God in worship
- David seems to be our prime example of intimate worship. He could be completely lost in the moment of worship, so much so that he would dance before the Lord, completely oblivious to those around him.
- I have a friend who died years ago now, but John Chang would come into a small worship setting, spread his arms out before God and just be lost in the moment. (John was truly worshiping God with his whole heart, his whole being. God wasn’t ‘out there’ John was worshipping intimately. God was close, God was present in response to John’s adoration)
Mark Burlinson: Intercession=parga = impact, collision with God, where we are changed. (car crash analogy) It is more than just prayer. Intercession is ‘meeting’ God face to face and we are changed.
Some of us attended the Intercession conference at TACF, and we found that much of the teaching in prayer & intercession also applies to Worship interchangeable – Praying to God when I sing) Worship Intercessor Sheet
· Rev. 5:8 harp and bowls
At its base, what we call “intimate worship” is worship that is fully aware, desiring, and open to God’s presence. – 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
Ø God is not at a distance. God is close. When we come to worship, isn’t it awe-inspiring that we can be with God ‘up close and personal’?’
Ref: Hana call to worship-before the throne of God) Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of Grace with confidence.”
*** One time I was in the sanctuary trying to talk to God and I was dealing with so many conflicting issues. My head was buzzing going around and around in circles. (Looking back I actually think I was avoiding God and avoiding the truth about myself) I finally ended up face down on the floor with my hands in front of my face. I kept repeating, ‘Ok, just you and me God’ God came and met me there. The encounter changed me profoundly. Now that was up close and personal. From then on I recognize the difference when I pray & worship. My worship is now qualitatively different. There’s longing in my heart for God. The desire of my heart is to speak intimately with God. God will come as close as we will allow Him.
Ø Our heart – Intimacy with God is a heart issue. What is the position or attitude of your heart to God? In that last example, I was avoiding God having an attitude problem toward God. My heart was still keeping God at a distance. I still felt I could do stuff on my own. I was trusting & relying on Pam.
· Mark Burlinson “Its all to do with our hearts. Our hearts have to be right. I rely on you, God. We can’t have any trace of ‘I know what to do”.
– Intimacy with God says “God you are Lord of my Life and I trust you.”
– Intimacy says “You are God. I need you. My heart needs you.”
– Intimacy says “I worship you. You’re it. You the one You da man.”
– Intimacy says “God what do you want me to do here. What is your heart and let me follow your heart. What do you want to do in this service?” and “I’ll drop everything to be with you.”
Intimacy in worship is about the passion of our heart.
We need our worship to go from our head to our heart. If all we do is think about God, we’re not going to get to the place of intimacy.
At the Prayer & Intercession conference last week, Roger Mitchell wanted us to experience God with our heart and not just our head. In his wonderful English accent, He actually suggested we unscrew head and stick it under your feet. When you abandon yourself to God, then you experience the fullness of God.
God is longing for quality time with us. He would rather have us sing off key, out of rhythm with made up lyrics but sung with a passionate adoring heart, than with a perfectly executed worship service.
I’m discovering that There is qualitatively different types of worship (the heart of worship lyrics on screen) Sing vs sing to God vs worship focusing on your petitions OR worship-that’s not all about you/ but it’s all about God///Adoration of God/Loving God, passionately with your whole heart.
– New Discovery for me: For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them. Psalm 22 : 3 KJV Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. God inhabits our worship. God is present when we corporately worship passionately adoring our Father. Tommy Tenney says Worship is the key component to the manifest presence of God coming down among us. Thanksgiving gets you in the gates , praise gets you in the courts, but worship takes you into His presence.
· John Arnott – Worship ushers in the presence of God
· Michael Chang Transformation Ministries – the Job of intecessors is to usher in the presence of God
– Do you want experience God’s presence? Do you want an intimate relationship with God up close and personal? Let’s worship together corporately with adoring hearts focusing on God, not us.
The Fruit of Intimacy
v First and Foremost - Deepened Relationship with Jesus, a closer walk fellowship– allowing God input into your life/interaction
v When we meet with God we are changed
– Moses face shone, our faces are unveiled. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
v Worship ushers in the presence of God. What happens when the presence of God touches our lives?
Tommy Tenney in his book “God’s Favourite House”says Every unholy thing will be leveled under the weight of His glory.
Acts16:16 When praying and worshiping to God from their jail cell, God loosed Paul &Silas chains and opened the doors. When worshipping and praying, God changed their circumstances. If it is God’s will, He can and has healed physically, emotionally, circumstances. ----It’s up to God though. We do our part through intimate worship but it’s up to God to produce the fruit.
What happens inside us when God is present?
(practically speaking, I believe every facet of our being gets touched by God if we are open and allow him to come in i.e. emotional issues, daily concerns, parenting issues. Gods light will banish the darkness in our lives)
God’s presence in worship changes our hearts not necessarily our situation. So we are better able to handle our situation.
When we are able to come this close to God, we are granted a deeper knowledge of God’s Love both for ourselves, and for others.
– Ephesians 3:17b-19 “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Isaiah 44:3-5 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
like poplar trees by flowing streams.
5 One will say, ’I belong to the Lord ’;
another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
still another will write on his hand, ’The Lord ’s,’
and will take the name Israel.
– “I’m God’s favorite”
- John Arnott - Worship can be a catalyst for a prophetic flow of intercession.
- 2 Kings 3:15 While the Harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha. And he said this is what the Lord says…..
- dry prayer times
What can stop us from being intimate in worship?
- not knowing that we can actually be that close to God – “In my day we wanted to be on the right side of God, but we didn’t want to get close to Him!”
- fear of intimacy – “I don’t want to be intimate with anyone, never mind God!”
- Fear of God or us looking in the ‘mirror’ , thinking God won’t ‘like us’
- Sin – Adam & Eve hiding in the garden
False or incomplete images of God
There was a point in my life that I realized that I very seldom called God “Father” in my prayers. As I mused about why that might be, … it wasn’t that I had a bad relationship with my earthly father – we are good friends. It really came down to theology – my first and foremost image of God was that of Judge. This is not a false image – God is Judge of the universe, but if this is the only way we see him, it can hamper intimacy.
Jesus tells us to call God “Abba” – “Father”, or “Papa,” “Daddy,” without the childishness. If you find that it is difficult to call God “Father” for what ever reason, Pray that the Holy Spirit will fill you and help you to call him Father.
Romans 8 “15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
“It’s for other people” We might tell ourselves that this type of encounter with God is fine for others. We might think that it applies to those in ministry, and people who are “into that sort of thing.”
There may be men out their who think that this type of intimacy is fine for women, but real men don’t do that sort of thing. But when we look at the men of the Bible who had this type of relationship with God – David, Isaiah, Jesus, the apostles… they were all strong men who knew how to have a desperately close relationship with God as men.
What Leads us to Intimacy in Worship?
· Individual worship – use the psalms, songs to God, not just about God, write him letters, poems, songs.
· Corporate worship – we together are his bride, not on our own
· At home Being with Jesus Time- Time when we put on some worship music - quiet & open our hearts to wait upon the Lord to listen & receive from God, to invite the HS. Some people call this ‘Soaking in the presence of God’ Prayer lists are good. We are called to petition our Lord. But --Be still and know that I am God Isaiah 40 – Those that Wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Trish Bootsma discusses the intimacy of her hidden life, putting on her worship cd – soaking - her time allowing His presence
Results: understanding His love
:Intimacy
:Sensivity to the HS Discernment of the HS
:Spiritual Gifts Increased
Being in His Presence changes everything – Be with Him, be with Him, Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Resources
Seek His Face Night
Just Worship
Space for God
Hang out with worshipers!
Worship CD’s - Hungry, Michael W. Smith “worship”…
Books – Seek My Face – William S. Barry S.J.
Return of the Prodigal – Henri Nowen
Tommy Tenny – God Chasers, God’s Favorite House
This Sermon was writen and preached in partnership with my wife Pam.
