The Voice of Worship: The Heart of Worship
[powerpress] It is one thing to talk about Jesus. It is another thing to relate to and interact with the living God. It is important in our walks with God that we make the transition from knowing about Jesus to actually relating with Jesus. We will learn how to do the latter as we look at the priority of approaching Jesus in worship and study biblical coaches who exemplified pleasing worship to God.
Turning the Chair
We were made for relationship with God. All of the pursuits of life that have become idols are an effort to fill that ontological void.
God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV)
Jesus unapologetically says, before you do anything else, make it a priority to relate to Him that He might contextualize and be a barometer for the rest of your life's affairs.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 NIV)
If you have to choose between first working for God or sitting at His feet, always choose sitting at His feet. Jesus will fight to protect His time with you. It will propel any of the work that He has called you to do in school, in the workplace, with your family, amongst your friends, in the community or the church. Choose time with Jesus over sleep, a movie, other entertainment, a hangout with friends, or work, knowing that when you've given Him your first and best, He will multiply your time, efforts, and quality of interaction in all of these other things.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV)
As opposed to the conditions on the competition The Voice, there is nothing that you need to do to turn God's chair. You do not need to perform for Him. You already have His attention. He is the one waiting for you to come and meet with Him. Because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross, you can approach God with confidence.
The good news is that when we think of worship, it is about real relationship with Jesus. Religion keeps you at a distance, but relationship draws you in. Empty religion is an obligation, but relationship becomes a delight.
This truth is ironically reflected in Steve Martin's comic piece, Atheists Don't Have No Songs: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QJS5UOyHyQE
Steve Martin's parody actually shows the deep resources from which the Christian pulls their thankfulness bursting over in song because of God's goodness.
“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.” ― A.W. Tozer
The Coaches
God has given us pictures in the Scripture of examples of worship that are pleasing to Him. They act as our coaches in relationship to Jesus.
We shall never want to serve God in our real and secret hearts if He looms in our subconscious mind as an arbitrary Dictator or a Spoil-sport, or as one who takes advantage of His position to make us poor mortals feel guilty and afraid. We have not only to be impressed by the "size" and unlimited power of God, we have to be moved to genuine admiration, respect, and affection, if we are ever to worship Him. - J. B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small
Religion can condemn; relationship can liberate (Romans 8). Religion makes everything about the rules; relationship makes everything about the love for God that has you obey His commands out of deep seated affection and gratitude. You want to please Him.
Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes. When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord ’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. (2 Samuel 6:12-23 NIV)
The ark of the Lord represented the presence of God that the Israelites would carry with them on their journey to the promised land, in their battles, and rest finally at their place of worship. It was the physical sign of God being with them, as He is with the Christian today. When we engage God in worship, it is the difference between being in the same house as your parent, and sitting down with them face to face in quality interaction. God wants and calls us to the latter type of relationship, and King David celebrated that reality with exuberant praise.
There can be obstacles as to why you don't come before God:
David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord ’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the Lord ’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. (2 Samuel 6:1-11 NIV)
Before that moment of exuberant praise, King David had an encounter where he mishandled and misunderstood the presence of God. You may have experienced the same thing, but there is hope for a safe, fresh, and real encounter with God.
There are other reasons that people exclude relating to God as a part of their lives:
1) Because He is invisible, and we can feel like we are talking to the wall. We feel like we are wasting our time, or that it won't produce much that we desire.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)
The good news is that as we approach God with trust and expectation, He promises to draw near to meet with us.
Moses, who spoke to God face to face as a man speaks with a friend, encouraged us: Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? (Deuteronomy 4:6-8 NIV)
James, Jesus' natural born little brother, exhorted in the same manner: But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:6-8 NIV)
2) Like the contestants on The Voice, we don't have the confidence. We can feel unworthy, ill-equipped, dirty, or simply scared. Many times our perception of God can be shaped by our relationship with our own father. We can have misconceptions about who God is.
This is where we find the cross of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, you begin there and end there. Every day, you are living by the grace given you because of Jesus' sacrifice and blood spilled upon it.
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:14-17 NIV)
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:10-12 NIV)
The good news is that to the Christian and the one who has not yet begun to follow Jesus, God says come. At the cross, Jesus took the punishment for the sins that separate you from God, and He rose from the dead to act as a bridge to your living relationship with the living God. Now we only need to repent (turn away from our rebellion), believe the good news, and come.
Second City Church- The Voice of Worship Sermon Series 2014