Worship The Lord Your God With Half Your Heart

According to Barna, half of all churchgoers admit that they have not felt connected to God or in His presence at any time in the past year, in spite of regular church attendance.

Too many of us are coming to church, but not coming to worship. We’re, at best, worshiping the Lord with half of our hearts.

Key Question: How do we begin to move toward the place where we worship God with all our heart?

Let’s look at David’s worship this morning and draw 5 things out of his worship that we need to understand for our worship.

1. V. 25 - Deep worship is marked by joy.

If we don’t feel much joy as we walk through the doors, perhaps we should spend the moments before the worship begins pondering all that God has done for us (our salvation, giving us a home in heaven, sticking with us when we fail, etc.). If that doesn’t create some joy within us, I don’t know what will.

2. V. 26 - Deep worship requires sacrifice.

We obviously don’t offer animal sacrifices anymore, but a couple of ways we can bring proper sacrifices are:

a. Our praise and thanksgiving is a sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

- Heb. 14:15; Jer. 33:10-11; Ps. 116:17.

b. The offering we put in the plate should be a sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

- Too many of us say God is the first thing in our lives, then bring Him a second or third rate offering.

- Luke 21:4; Acts 4:34; 2 Cor. 8:3-4.

3. VV. 27-28 - Deep worship usually includes heartfelt singing and shouting.

a. Singing is not something we do to kill time before getting to the preaching.

- Jam. 5:13; Eph. 5:19.

b. Shouting is a valid part of worship as well.

- "Amen" means "This is true" and "Hallelujah" means "Praise the Lord."

4. V. 29 - Deep worship is physical.

Whirling may not be the way we express it, but rather than just "worshiping in our hearts," we should let it out sometimes. Some examples:

a. Kneeling.

- Ps. 85:6; Eph. 3:14.

b. Clapping.

- Ps. 47:1; Isa. 55:12.

c. Lifting hands.

- Ps. 134:1-2; 1 Tim. 2:8.

- Regarding lifting hands, there are some churches that are more concerned about not being perceived as Pentecostal than they are about being Biblical.

5. V. 29 - Deep worship will generally offend some people.

Our focus cannot be on pleasing people with our worship; our focus must be on pleasing God.