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?
d. “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”.
i. Intimacy with God says
1. you are Lord of my Life and I trust you.”
2. “You are God. I need you. My heart needs you.”
3. “I worship you. You’re it. You the one You da man.”
4. “God what do you want me to do here. What is your heart and let me follow your heart.
5. “I’ll drop everything to be with you.”
e. Intimacy in worship is about the passion of our heart.
f. God is longing for quality time with us.
g. 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.
h. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them. Psalm 22 : 3
i. God is present when we corporately worship passionately adoring our Father.
j. Worship is the key component to the manifest presence of God coming down among us.
i. Thanksgiving gets you in the gates ,
ii. praise gets you in the courts,
iii. but worship takes you into His presence.
IV. The Fruit of Intimacy
a. Deepened Relationship with Jesus, a closer walk fellowship– allowing God input into your life.
Let the one who would worship God open his mouth in praise, his heart in receptivity, his mind in contemplation, his purse in dedication, and his hand in fellowship.
b. When we meet with God we are changed
i. Moses face shone, our faces are unveiled. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
c. What happens when the presence of God touches our lives?
i. Every unholy thing will be leveled under the weight of His glory.
d. Acts16:16 When praying and worshiping to God from their jail cell, God loosed Paul &Silas chains and opened the doors.
e. When worshipping and praying, God changed their circumstances.
f. What happens inside us when God is present?
g. God’s presence in worship changes our hearts not necessarily our situation. So we are better able to handle our situation.
h. 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.
i. Ephesians 3:17b-19 “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
j. 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.
k. Worship can be a catalyst for a prophetic flow of intercession.
i. 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
V. Dry worship times
a. What can stop us from being intimate in worship?
i. not knowing that we can actually be that close to God
ii. “In my day we wanted to be on the right side of God, but we didn’t want to get close to Him!”
iii. fear of intimacy – “I don’t want to be intimate with anyone, never mind God!”
iv. Fear of God or us looking in the ‘mirror’ , thinking God won’t ‘like us’
v. Sin – Adam & Eve hiding in the garden
vi. False or incomplete images of God
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.
b. Romans 8 “15 For 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.”
c. “It’s for other people” We might tell ourselves that this type of encounter with God is fine for others.
VI. What Leads us to Intimacy in Worship?
a. Individual worship
b. Look at the psalms, they were songs to God, not just about God, write him letters, poems, songs.
c. 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.
d. Some people call this ‘Soaking in the presence of God’ Prayer lists are good. We are called to petition our Lord.
e. Be still and know that I am God Isaiah 40
f. 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.
One Christmas Eve the telephone rang in the office of the pastor of the church in Washington, D.C. that President Franklin Roosevelt attended. “Tell me Reverend,” the voice inquired, “are you holding a Christmas Eve service tonight?” When advised that there would certainly be a service that evening, the caller asked, “And do you expect President Roosevelt to attend your church tonight?” “That,” explained the Pastor patiently, “I can’t promise. I’m not sure about the President’s plans for this evening. But I can say that we fully expect God to be in our church tonight, and we feel secure in the knowledge that His attendance will attract a reasonably large congregation.”
