Today we wrap up our study on worship. I hope that you have been challenged and that you have been inspired to worship God more.

To conclude the study the most important point to remember is that pursuing satisfaction in God leads you to a God focused worship. By choosing to satisfy yourself in God always leads to focusing on God.

Its not possible to be satisfied in God without looking at Him and seeing who He is, what matters to Him, what drives Him. When you learn more about God He will lead you along a journey of self discovery where you will begin to understand that you were designed to worship a Father in heaven.

Take Note:

• Worship is not about singing
• Worship is not about music
• Worship is not about service
• Worship is not about quiet times
• Worship is not even about a lifestyle

All of these things flow from a deeply satisfied person. A person who is completely satisfied in God. The end result of worship should be complete satisfaction in God.  When God is the source of your satisfaction your natural response to Him will be to know Him more and worship Him more.

Thats why worship is such an amazing experience – because it is so satisfying.

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How do you know if Christ is your desire? At the beginning of this series we looked at how and why God is so interested in the heart. Our heart is responsible for deciding what is most important to us. Whatever is most important to us becomes the object of our worship. We mould our lives around it, we talk about it, write about it, listen to it, play with it, learn from it and do everything we can to see to manifest it in our lives.

Whatever we worship satisfies us. That’s why we worship it! We would never worship something or someone who does not satisfy us.

To make Christ your desire simply means to find your satisfaction in Him. In other words, in your relationship with Jesus you are completely happy and you find joy in Him. This means that YOU GET everything you need to be satisfied in life, from God.

It does not mean giving everything up and trying to live as best as you possibly can. Doing everything you can to serve in the church, pray every morning and read your bible. It means that YOU GET everything you desire that makes you satisfied from God. Does this sound selfish? YES! We has human beings are driven by our desires. What we want and makes us satisfied!!

Seeking to be satisfied in God means to pursue God. To make His will our will, to let Him and His will become the very thing that brings us joy. Our joy needs to come from Him. Our ‘wants’ need to be directed by Him.

To have joy as a Christian is not optional. Without joy we cannot worship because we worship what brings us joy. No one worships what does not bring us joy!

The chorus ‘As the deer pants for the water oh my soul longs for you…’ has profound wisdom. What does the deer do for the stream? Nothing!! It does not serve it, it does not help it, make it better. It simply drinks from it and it is satisfied and renewed. (Excerpt from John Piper sermon)

Come to God to gain satisfaction like the deer pants for the water. Drink enthusiastically so that your can satisfy your thirst. God wants to satisfy your hunger and thirst he says so in the beatitudes:

Matthew 5: 6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

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After a challenging week dealing with what God has asked us to deal with, lets re-read the passage from Phillipians 1: 20-21

‘I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.’

To recap from last week:The desire on Paul’s heart is two fold:

1. To not be ashamed of his testimony of the gospel
2. To see Christ exalted in his life

Paul then states that he desires this ‘whether by life or death.’ This is the focus for these two weeks. How can we see Christ exalted in our life through life and death? Last week we focused on ‘through death’ and this week we will look at ‘through life’.

Through Life
‘for me, to live is Christ.’ Paul’s heart here shows us that anything that filled Paul’s life failed to compare with his desire to see Christ exalted. Paul had a view that life was inly important if it meant that Christ was exalted in his life. In other words, Christ would always be the central driving force behind Paul’s actions.

Unlike the Pharisees in Matthew 15: 8-9 whose focus was their own exaltation, Paul’s example to us challenges us to always put God’s plan and purpose first.

Our application this week is simply to ask the following question:
Is there anything in my life that I have placed before the will of God?

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Last week we looked at how the attitude and focus of our heart is so important to God. This has lead us to look at our worship to God and how it filters through our live from our hearts. Lets look at Paul’s example in Phillipians 1: 20-21 as he shares his heart with the Phillipian church:

‘I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.’

The desire on Paul’s heart is two fold

1. To not be ashamed of his testimony of the gospel
2. To see Christ exalted in his life

Paul then states that he desires this ‘whether by life or death.’ This is the focus for the next two weeks. How can we see Christ exalted in our life through life and death? This week we will focus on ‘through death’ and next week we will look at ‘through life’.

Through Death
‘for to me…. to die is gain.’ Paul has an understanding that if he needed to die so that Christ would be exalted then he would see his death as gain. This is because his desire is solely focused on seeing Christ exalted.

Our application here is seen in what we need to let go of in our lives to see Christ exalted in us. What has God asked you to let go of? What has he asked you to deal with, to sort out and to hand over to Him? You need to be ready to let go of whatever you are holding onto.

Do you see this aspect of your life as something to give up in order to experience more joy as Christ is exalted in your life, or do you see this as a sacrifice.
When you give something up as a sacrifice you often give it up reluctantly, out of obligation. When you give something up because you honestly believe that God will bless you as He is exalted in your life, you give it up freely.

Which heart focus do you think God would be more pleased:

• The reluctant, obligated sacrifice or
• The joyful expectation of God’s glory

The joy that comes from a decision to see Christ exalted is so great because you will see Christ exalted.

What is God asking you to die in? Where do you need to hand over the reigns to Him? Who do you need to forgive? What do you need to stop doing? Where do you need to stop going?

Seek to see God glorified and exalted as you worship Him with your lifestyle and He will ask you to die to your self so that He may exalt Himself.

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Stop for a moment! Find a way to block out the distractions for the next five minutes. Today we are going to use our imagination.

I want you to imagine your heart as a big storage room. A place where you hold everything and everyone most dear to you. As you walk through the front door there is a TV that is playing back all the good memories with old friends and family. You love to reminisce about these times, they bring you so much joy. That why you store them here, its where they are the safest. Nobody else can take these beautiful memories from you.

As you walk further in you trip over a book that is filled with all the life lessons you have learnt. Not the stuff you learnt at school, that information is housed in the brain. These lessons are more important. They remind you who you can trust, how life works and that sometimes you have to look out for yourself. They record everything in the most incredible detail. Ready for retrieval at anytime.

The room is filled with a mist which makes it hard to see everything clearly. The mist wasn’t this heavy last time you were here, it seems to get thicker as you store more stuff in your heart. The mist has a very distinct aroma, but it seems to change from a vengeful stench to a romantic perfume. You begin to realise that this mist that envelopes your memories and lessons is your emotion. That mist that is fed by what you store in your heart. It filters through the cracks in the door of your heart and starts to govern your mind and your actions.

The decisions you make in your heart are stronger than the decisions you make in your mind. The decisions you make in your heart have a stronger foundation than those in your mind.They are more personal and they have emotional attachments that cannot be shaken.

That is why God is so interested in your heart! He knows what goes on in your heart is more important than what goes on in your mind. He understands that your heart governs your life.Thats why Jesus says in Matthew 15: 8-9

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’

Jesus is speaking about the Pharisees and how he sees that their hearts our governed by selfish ambition to be the most Godly person. Jesus says they worship in vain because their hearts are centered on themselves.

We are going into a series on worshipping God over the next few weeks and I pray that this series will challenge you to focus your hearts on God.
The Pharisees looked like they were doing well at God’s work but God was not interested in their work because the ‘mist’ that surrounded their heart reeked of vain worship.

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We are all ambitious people!

There is a desire that drives us everyday to achieve something, to finish a project, get a degree, build a home, start a family, retire wealthy, buy a  4×4, help someone in need, volunteer at a children’s home, work in the church, become a missionary, devote ourselves to a religion.

That something is ambition and we all have it. In fact, when someone has no purpose, or is in a situation where they cannot realise their amibitions they often become depressed and demotivated.

What is ambition?
Ambition is the one things inside of us that drives us and motivates us to realise the thing that are important to us. In other words ambition leads us to a purpose – ambition directs our lives.

Success and treasure!
As your ambition directs your life, you will experience success, and every now and then you will experience a few failures too.

With success you will gain the rewards for your success. Your failures will give you opportunities to learn so that you can be more successful  in the future and become more successful. Bringing more rewards your way. These rewards are so precious to us as individuals because they were gained by the fulfilling the dreams and ambitions we have. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 6:21 “For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also!”

You see, your heart is directly attached to anything that you feel is important. No one else needs to agree in the importance of something you value. If you feel it is valuable it will be close to your heart.

Your treasure is the fruit of your worship
Your treasure is the fruit of your hard work, your time, your passion, your belief, your ideals, your morals and everything that shaped your ambitions in the first place
Worship is a natural reaction that exists in every person – whether they know God or not. It is our natural reaction to whatever we hold most dear to our hearts

Paul Washer explains worship with this analogy: A man is so mesmerized by what he is looking at, that the moment you look at him – you stop looking at him and you start looking at what he’s looking at. Here is the video:

What are you searching for most in your life? Chances are that you are focused intently on it, you talk about it, you read about it, you talk to it, you can’t get enough of it.  More importantly, you experience so much joy and happiness when are focused on it, using it, living it and loving it.

Please read Matthew 6: 19-24 and ask yourself these questions over the next week:

1) Is my treasure eternal or are my ambitions leading me towards treasures on earth?

2) Does your treasure offer everlasting joy? (Psalm 37:4)

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Psalm 100 has to be one of my favourite Psalms. This may be evident in the fact that I regularly read it when I lead worship. The passage speaks in such simple terms the call to worship and gives us a clear description of how we are to worship. God desires us to worship Him, He loves our worship. Today’s devotion is not as long as the others you normally get from onthingsabove but I hope that it will be a great blessing to you.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving thanks.

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his ^[a] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Call out with Joy

In every aspect of our lives we should be ready to call out with joy to God. This is not easy to follow because we are emotional beings who are not always filled with joy. Our natural response to anything in life is closely linked to the way we feel at the time. So to approach God with joy can be difficult when the woes of life are getting us down.

God does not discount this fact. However, in His wisdom, God reveals to us later in this Psalm that if we approach God with thanksgiving instead of our list of troubles, we will see that He is in control of all things. Our natural reaction to that realisation will be to worship joyfully. Then when we lift our troubles to God, we lift them knowing that he has the power and strength to resolve all the troubles you face. Further than that, as you give thanks to God for the great things He has done in your life, you will see His plan unfold, how He has brought you out of troubles in the past, how He was always with you – even when you could not feel Him there.

When we approach God with thanksgiving first, we set our hearts and minds on Him (Colossians 3). However, when we come to God with our list of problems we are experiencing we are too focused on our problems to worship God.

I am not saying that you should not raise your troubles to God. I am suggesting that when we lift only problems to God then those problems can overcome us. When we start by giving thanks to God – we focus on Him and His greatness and then we can lift our troubles to Him – worshipfully – knowing that He has been faithful to us through everything so far.

“Enter His gates giving thanks” and “Honour His name” are two things that we can do that will focus our hearts and minds on the greatness of God, His loving kindness and His faithfulness to us.

Be Glad as you Serve the Lord

As we focus on giving God thanks for the blessings in our life. As we focus our hearts and minds on His kindness, grace and faithfulness our natural response would be gratitude. God loves to hear our gratitude and our gratitude is seen in the way that we serve Him. Our commitment and desire to serve God, to do the best for God is a picture of our gratitude towards God.

‘Be Glad as You Serve God’ simply means to respond to God’s greatness by being obedient in your service to Him.

In the future, why not try starting your prayers and worship with thanksgiving. I believe that your natural reaction will then be to worship God both in word and deed. Your obedience to God will be a natural outcome of your gratitude to Him. Your worship will feel more natural because you are focused on God and His glory instead of on your needs and desires.

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Family worship is a concept that can be defined in a variety of way and means. It often has a very different definition depending on the person you speak to.  A person’s generation, education, race, personla preference and even their on family circumstance are all factors that come into play when you ask them their veiw on ‘family worship.’

I wanted to share something that became so evident to me a few weeks ago.

Liz (my wife) and I are the worship co-ordinators at Kloof Baptist Church where we have a vision for Family Worship. A church that worships as a family. Worship that is not defined by style of music but rather by a desire to worship God in fellowship and to publically proclaim His glory.

Giving God the Credit for His Works

I have been ponderng this concept for a while and started to come to the conclusion that God doesn’t get enough credit most of the time. In church (and in our own lives) we are quick to offer up prayers asking for help but we don’t actually spend much time giving God glory for the way he has answered our prayers. So I decided to build times of corporate prayer and testimony into the worship services that I lead. These times have taken some getting used to but they have been well recieved.

We are still ironing out the logistical bugs (like the fact that a person praying without a microphone can’t always be heard by the rest of the congregation) but we have been blessed with amazing testimonies that shout out glory to God. People in our church who have been healed from cancer, threatening brain tumors and blindness have had their testimonies shared and people have been able to share in the greatness of God as they hear the testimony of others.

How this works in saving the lost

I began to think about how a non-christian person would see this type of service and how they would respond to it. I believe that it may open doors into that persons heart more than a well rehersed musical worship programme. Simply because that non-christian would be hearing about how God is working in peoples lives. Proving to that person that God is real, he is in relationship with the church, and it people.

If you read John 9 you will see a story of a man healed from blindness whose testimony of how God worked in his life challenged even the most ‘righteous’ people that heard about the story.

The power of personal testimony is far greater than we can imagine. It should be a part of church worship because it is a celebration of how God has worked in our lives. That testimony usually ends with giving God the glory and therefore our act of worship ‘bring glory to God’ is beautiful in God’s sight.

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Worshipping God is a fairly simple concept. To worship someone who did so much for us, to love Him with everything we have and to immerse ourselves in His goodness.

In essence, worshipping God is simply our natural response to what He has done in our lives. Our natural response to His goodness, His greatness and His holiness.

Although you can’t create a simple formula for worship that would cover every aspect of worship I do believe that there are certain things that should be a part of worship. Last night, at a Worship Workshop held at Kloof Baptist Church, Trevor Wood explained so clearly the following:

Thanksgiving is our response to His goodness
Praise is our response to His greatness
Worship is our response to His holiness

To expand on this a bit more, Psalm 100 asks us to go into God’s presence with thanksgiving. A heart of thanks towards what God has done in our lives helps us to focus our lives on God. As we see how God has been there for us and how good He has been to us we begin to make a move toward responding to His greatness.

His greatness is seen in our lives. In the way He works in our lives. The bible is full of stories and accounts of God’s greatness. We see greatness in His wisdom and strength as He worked through the prophets in the Old Testament. The New Testament is full of miracle stories as God displayed His power over sin, disease and deformity. God is great! We should praise His name because of it.

Focusing on God’s person is the next step. His greatness leads us to contemplate His being. Why would this great God care about mankind, why would He sacrifice His own son for us and how do I respond to the truth that He does care and He does love me.

There is a song that goes like this:

When I look into Your holiness
When I gaze into Your loveliness
When all things that surround become shadows
In the light of You

When I’ve found the joy of reaching Your heart
When my will become enthroned in Your love
When all things that suround become shadows
In the light of You

I worship You I worship You
The reason I live is to worship You

(Wayne Perrin)

As we look into the personality and holiness of God our natural response of to worship Him.

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