Core Values: Worship – Ephesians 5:18-20
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
20 Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Our Spirit-filled worship is a core value for us. It makes us different because we believe in the awesome presence of God that permeates our worship. This presence is so powerful that it transforms and shakes people to their core. It is amazing what God’s presence accomplished in Scripture. His Presence shook temples, transformed liars, washed harlots, drowned armies, protected His people, overthrew enemies. Not the valiance of Israel, but the presence of God. I long for God’s presence to manifest in Lexington in ways that our generation has not seen. I long for the God of the Cain Ridge Revival to shake our generation! The presence of God that came down in our land!
I long for the presence because I know what it has done for me and how I need it so much now. I need the presence of God today!
I have had a personal revival in my life over the last year and it has been fueled by a revival of worship. By pulling my spirit into continual worship, I have seen God bring spiritual transformation, vision, passion, business success, you name it. It has all flowed out of worship.
I now realize I’m too busy not to worship. If I don’t take time to worship and get in His presence, I’ll never get anything done. Without worship I’m unproductive as a father, a pastor, a businessman. But with worship, I see how God brings life and multiplication into reality.
a. Worship fulfills the supreme command to love God
b. Worship is a lifestyle of glorifying God with actions, words and abilities
c. As believers, our response to God’s presence in our lives is reverence and worship
d. God commands our worship must be empowered by the Holy Spirit, genuine, and offered with all our heart
I. What is Worship: Worship is an action. To worship is
i. To quicken the conscience by the holiness of God,
ii. To feed the mind with the truth of God
iii. To purge the imagination by the beauty of God
iv. To open the heart to the love of God
v. To devote the will for the purpose of God
II. Worship was not invented by man, but commanded by God.
i. PRAISE IS NOT JUST SOME ASPECT OF CHURCH THAT MEN THOUGHT UP
ii. It is a divinely ordained unconditional expression on our part , that if practiced by us will draw us closer to God
III. Worship brings the presence of God
i. Ps 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel
IV. Worship is the natural response to the creator.
i. All of creation is engaged in continual worship
ii. You long to worship, so much that you will worship something – either the true living God, or one that is fashioned by your hands or imagination
iii. We become like what we worship. If we:
1. Worship possessions…become a materialistic person.
2. Worship money… become a greedy person.
3. Worship Sex… become a lustful person.
4. Worship Power… become a corrupt person. But…
5. Worship Jesus… become a Christ like person
iv. Not only should the redeemed of the Lord praise Him, but the Bible says "let everything that has breath, praise the Lord." If you inhale God’s air, you should exhale God’s praise.
V. EXPRESSING YOUR PRAISE INCLUDES
i. Clapping -- Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands all ye people, shout unto God with a voice of triumph".
ii. Lifting up your hands -- Psalm 134:2 "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord".
iii. Singing - Psalm 100:2 -- "come before him with Joyful song"
1. Ephesians 5:18-20 "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord"
iv. Shouting Praise - Psalm 100 "Shout for Joy all the earth, worship the Lord with gladness
v. Kneeling
vi. Dancing
vii. Playing Instruments skillfully & loudly
viii. Praise is both thanksgiving for what He’s done and faith for what He will do
1. Praise is... Thanksgiving to God for blessings received and the reporting of those blessings to others
2. Praise is...a response of faith toward his precious promises.
a. I believe in positive confession.
b. If his promise to heal you is true then you need to thank and praise him for it.
c. If you believe his promise to deliver you is true then you need to thank and praise him for it.
d. If you trust him to guide you then you need to thank and praise him for it.
e. If you believe he can perform a miracle in your finances -then you need to thank and praise him for it.
f. Rather than praising God for the answer even before it comes What many Christians do when faced with one of God’s promises is
i. grow discouraged
ii. start to doubt
iii. they begin to disbelieve -- and miss the blessing
g. A poet wrote
i. we mutter and sputter
ii. We fume and we spurt
iii. We mumble and Grumble
iv. Our feelings get hurt
v. We can’t understand things
vi. our vision grows dim
vii. when all that we need
viii. is a moment with him
h. Hebrew 11 says: that with out faith it is impossible to please God and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him
i. Praise is an expression of your faith
VI. I don’t know about you but I’ve got to Praise Him…
i. Because He’s Almighty…
ii. Because He Blessed Me…
iii. Because He Cares for me
iv. Because He Delivered me…
v. Because He Erased the penalty of sin that was against me…
vi. Because He Forgave me…
vii. Because He Gave me eternal life…
viii. Because He Heard my cry…
ix. Because He Justified me…
x. Because He Kept me…
xi. Because He Loves me…
xii. Because of His Mercy…
xiii. Because He Never left me…
xiv. Because He Opened doors for me…
xv. Because He Paid the price for me…
xvi. Because Redeemed me…
xvii. Because He Saved and Sanctified me…
xviii. Because He Took my place at Calvary…
xix. Because of His Undying love for me…
xx. Because He gave me Victory…
xxi. Somebody ought to praise in this place…
VII. Genuine worship must be concerned with the glory of God
i. God seeks genuine worshippers.
ii. Worship for any other purpose other than god’s glory is not true worship.
iii. Worship is God-centered.
1. This is a good reminder because we are not to just get emotional or sing loudly for our own sake.
2. Our focus should not be on how worship makes us feel. Our worship must be centered on God alone.
3. Notice Psalms 95:1,2.
a. We are to “sing for joy to the Lord,”
b. we are to “shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation,”
c. we are to “come before Him with thanksgiving,” and
d. we’re to “extol Him with music and song.”
4. Our praise & worship is to give God pleasure
VIII. Heartfelt worship is passionate
i. David’s dancing before the Lord is a story of passionate worship.
1. As we take just a moment to look back at the history of the Ark of the Covenant, we can certainly understand why David was so excited and so moved to worship with all that is with him.
2. You see the Ark of the covenant represented God’s Presence.
3. Everyone knew that the Ark of the Covenant was more than just a gold box, it had no power within itself, but it represented the presented the presence of the Lord of all the earth.
4. It had but out of Israel’s midst for quite some time, it had been away from Jerusalem the capital city.
5. It had been stolen by the Philistines.
a. They had kept it in their possession for 7 months.
b. During those seven months the Ark of the Covenant proved to be embarrassingly powerful to humiliate both the people and their gods.
c. So they call in their spiritualist to find a way to get this ark out of their land and back into Israel’s possession.
d. They build a new cart and hook it to 2 animals and send it on its way.
e. The ark of the covenant comes to rest in the road at Beth-she-mesh.
f. There people are busy working in the fields but as they look up and see the ark of the Lord, they stop and begin to worship and rejoice.
g. Several people are then slain because they want to see what is in the ark and they open it up to take a look.
6. You see this ark represents God’s Presence and one cannot come in to God’s presence without preparation being made, one cannot touch God in the flesh and live.
7. It is then brought into the home of Abinadab where it will rest for nearly 50 years.
ii. But David sees the need to bring back God’s Presence to the capital City.
1. He wasn’t satisfied that the Ark of the Lord was just inside the boarder, he wanted God to be at the heart of his nation.
a. They quickly build a new cart to carry the ark on.
b. This new cart represents man trying to come before God on his own terms.
c. They had good intentions but they had not given due concern to The holiness of the ark.
d. The ark was fitted by rings and poles indicating that it was to be carried on the shoulders of the priest.
2. In their haste they forgot to properly prepare, they placed the Ark on this new cart driven by animals, they are moving along, playing Music, singing, dancing etc….
a. Then they come to the threshing floor of Nacon and suddenly the rejoicing turns to morning as the cart hit’s a rock and the ark shifts to one side.
b. Whenever you attempt to carry God around on your terms, He will always get dislocated from you!
3. As the ark shifts two men in charge of steadying the ark, one of them reaches out and places his hand on the ark, immediately he falls dead.
a. Flesh cannot touch God’s holiness and live!
4. David became angry at the Lord’s intervention for a time.
5. The ark is left at the home of Obed-edom.
a. For the next 3 months God very generously blesses the home of Obed-edom.
b. David hears of this and knows that he must bring the Glory and the Holiness of God back to the capital city.
6. So they research God’s Word concerning the transportation of the Ark, they carefully prepare the priest to carry the ark.
7. The day has arrived they have returned to Obed-edom’s to remove the ark and bring it back to Jerusalem.
8. The priests carry the ark upon their shoulders, they carry the ark six Paces and then they sit it down and offer sacrifices to the Lord.
a. You see death is always required in order to move into God’s Presence.
9. Finally they near the city of Jerusalem and they weight of the occasion suddenly strikes the heart of King David,
a. I see Him as he looks into the eyes of the people who line the streets, they are there to witness this great event, the returning of God’s presence to their city, to their nation’s capital.
b. I can see the people overwhelmed by the moment, some are weeping, some are laughing, rejoicing, singing, applauding,
10. David himself is suddenly overwhelmed by the thought that finally after all of those years, the Ark Of God is back in the capital city.
a. The people had played around and lost the Ark years ago, but now it was back
b. David forgets about the dignity of being a King
c. It is shouting time- God’s Presence has been longed for and now it is here!
d. David overwhelmed by the Spirit of God and by His emotions cuts lose and begins to dance with all of his heart before the Lord.
iii. It Was A Bold Display Of Passion
1. David danced as a result of his deep passion for God’s presence.
a. It was not to put on a show
b. it was not to satisfy the bystanders,
c. His actions were not for pleasing man, but rather pleasing God.
2. David’s love for God caused him to dance.
a. He loved God thankfully!
b. He loved God thoroughly!
3. David was not embarrassed to worship God before anyone!
4. It is refreshing to see leaders to day who openly speak of their dependence and reliance upon God.
iv. David Had A Burning Desire To Please God
1. Heartfelt worship pleases the Heart of God.
a. Real worship must flow from the heart.
b. John 4:24 (KJV)24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
2. Holy Worship pleases the heart of God.
a. We must maintain a spiritual and scriptural balance to our worship.
b. If our goal is to entertain others or to be entertained by others, our worship will be in vain.
c. Holy worship is scriptural worship.
3. Humble worship pleases God.
a. And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod
i. I don’t want to be a king, I just want to be a priest
b. David had removed his usual kingly attire and put on the linen robe of a priest.
c. He was expressing his reliance upon God before all of the people.
d. David wasn’t worried about looking like a king, he was busy being a worshiper.
v. David’s Wasn’t Concerned With Public Perceptions
1. David’s worship was marked by his unashamed devotion.
2. He wasn’t concerned about protecting his dignity.
3. David just cut loose and worshiped in undiminished delight.
IX. Living the life of worship will cost you: It may cost you your…
i. Time – Talents
ii. Relationships – Reputation
iii. Past times – Possessions
iv. Business - Body Romans 12:1
v. Worldly Pleasures – Earthly Treasures
X. How do you get connected with the presence of God? Everyone is different:
i. Connect through times of solitude -- prayer & study
ii. Connect through reflecting -- writing poetry
iii. Connect through meditating out in nature
iv. Connect through group prayer meetings
v. Connect through group bible studies
vi. Connect through worshipping
vii. Connect through serving
viii. Connect through deep theological discussions & debates
ix. Connect through giving
x. Connect through dancing
Conclusion:
It is important to find your style for connecting into the Presence of God and "lean into that style" for your personal devotions. Your devotions may be different than mine, but what’s important is that you find the way God has wired you to experience His presence and make sure you set time aside to enable that.
