Walking in Worship

Greetings everybody. This is John Ewart, senior

pastor at Inglewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, NC and I

just want to welcome you to another episode of Walking in

Prayer. I hope that you've enjoyed

listening to some of the other episodes.

These are designed for you to use either while you're walking

around the neighborhood, maybe you're walking the dog, walking

with your spouse or friends. You could be walking around the

track, the mall, the gym, or you could just be using these in

your personal quiet time while you're sitting in your home.

And so we've been sharing different topics concerning

prayer and how we can pray. And I'm joined in this episode

by Pastor Skyler Ortega, who's our worship leader and worship

pastor here at Inglewood. We're so thankful that he can

join us. And before we get started, we

just wanted to talk a little bit about worship.

How can we walk in worship as we pray?

And so we're going to talk about, first of all, what's

what's a good definition of worship?

Pastor Skyler, won't you help us out for a minute?

Absolutely. Thank you, Pastor John.

Well, for me, my definition of worship over the years has

gotten bigger to shorter to bigger to shorter, but I think I

finally come to a really nice condensed definition and that is

worship is all that we are responding to, all that God is

and all that God says. So worship in essence is a

lifestyle. It's everything that we say,

that we think that we do. And you can find this in the

Scriptures in Romans 12/1. It says present your bodies a

living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your

spiritual worship. And again in 1st Corinthians

1031, whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do it

all to the glory of God. So everything that we do worship

is all that we are responding to, all that God is and all that

he says. So as you begin walking, think

about how your entire life, your entire existence in a sense,

intertwines with this concept of worship.

How I can honor God with my life, How I can take the focus

off of myself and place it upon him, the one who sits on the

throne, and I can really honor Him and glorify Him.

So as you begin walking right now or as you begin praying in

your home, just take a few moments and reflect upon the

fact. Am I actually offering myself,

my whole self as a living sacrifice in a way that's

honorable and pleasing to Him? Is my whole life everything I

think, everything I say, everything I do an act of

worship that brings Him great glory?

So spend just a few moments praying about that as you walk

or as you sit in your quiet time.

The. The.

The. The.

And now as we continue that journey, let's talk a little

more about the relationship of prayer to worship and how the

two again are connected. And so Skyler, talk to us a

little bit. How do we how do we put together

the idea of worship and prayer? Yeah.

So there are many different forms of worship.

Many often or very often in times that people hear worship,

they think music and music alone, but music is just a

vehicle for worship. Prayer is another vehicle of

worship. It's one of the ways that we get

to worship the Lord both personally and corporately, as

we see in Acts 242. And they devoted themselves to

the teaching and the fellowship, into the breaking of bread and

the prayers. So in your personal time, and

both corporately, prayer acknowledges God's worth,

expresses our dependence on him, and reflects a desire to

understand and submit to God's purpose for our lives.

So prayer is an act of worship both in your personal time and

corporately as we gather as a body on Sundays.

And so now as you continue your journey, as you're walking or

praying at this point, I want you to take a moment and if

you're outside walking, look around for a moment and think

about, think about the majesty that God has created and how you

can thank him for that. In fact, I'm reminded of Psalm

95 as you walk or as you pray now says, Oh, come, let us sing

to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to

the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence

with Thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to

Him with songs of praise, for the Lord is a great God and a

great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of

the earth, the heights of the mountains are His.

Also the sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry

land. O Come, let us worship and bow

down. Let us kneel before the Lord our

Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture

and the sheep of His hand. Today if you hear His voice, do

not harden your hearts. So think about that as you're

praying and the fact that as you pray, as you're talking to God,

not only are you going to express things to him and praise

and adoration and acts of worship that that might be very

clear to you. But I also want you to think

about the fact you need to be listening and listen to his word

and listen to his Spirit as you pray as well.

And so praying is this is almost an act of breathing.

And as you worship, I hope that you're also recognizing that

connection that we've talked about South.

Take a few moments as you pray to think about how you can

praise God for who He is, thank Him for what He's doing in your

life, and also just submit to Him and be open in your heart

and mind to listen and to hear what He has to say to you.

The. The.

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And now as we continue, let's talk about some some good ideas.

What are some good ideas for personal worship?

How, how can I? Because sometimes we don't think

of it. It's kind of like you said a

minute ago, that sometimes we often think of worship as that

Sunday morning corporate worship service.

We call it that and it is, but there's so much more to this.

And so on the personal level, how how are how are some good

ways, what are some best practices for us in our personal

worship? Yeah, so I'll, I'll just speak

from my perspective on this. At my last church, I was in

charge of youth and they had a really hard time coming to grips

with how to worship personally. So I made it super simple for

them. And I've used it in my own

personal life as well, where if I'm driving in the car and I'm

listening to music, is the music that I'm listening to, is it

pleasing to the Lord and am I using that time to worship Him?

It's a very easy, simple way where I don't have to set aside

time, especially unique time, quiet time for most people.

I can just listen to a song and worship the Lord by singing it

out loud to Him. And that's one of the simplest

ways that I do it. Personal time, praying, you

know, getting a loan for me. I have a prayer room at my house

and I will get into my prayer closet if you will, and I will

set aside time to read the Word and pray and seek the Lord and

seek His will for my life. So those are two ways that I

personally am worshipping the Lord in my personal time.

I also often think, when I think of worship, I think of, I think

of Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah is actually in a, in a,

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

in a spirit of mourning. The king has died.

I think there's a sense of desperation.

It may be that Isaiah was even a relative of the king and he goes

to the temple. He's trying to sort out who's

going to lead us now, you know, how are the people going to be

led? And so sometimes in life, we,

we, we have needs, we have questions, we even suffer, we

have grief, we have things we're going through.

And the Bible says that when he goes, he sees the Lord high and

lifted up. And his response was, was pretty

simple. It was a response of humility.

He, he recognized that he was a sinful person who, who, who had

unclean lips. The Bible says he had unclean

thoughts in mind. And the Lord cleanses him and

restores him and calls him out. And so in that act of worship,

in that act of humbling himself before the Lord, the Lord

actually gives him comfort. The Lord also gives him

direction. The Lord gives him calling.

So in worship, not only are we adoring God, I think, but we're

receiving back from him a sense of who we are supposed to be in

him. I've often told my students that

seminary that I want you to understand two or three things.

I want you to understand who God is.

I want you to understand who you are.

And I want you to understand the difference between the two so

that you can understand how we should adore God.

So I want you to think about it in, in your personal worship

time right now. Just reflect as you're walking

or as you're sitting there and praying.

How, how am I worshipping God when it's just me?

When, when I'm not necessarily at the church, I'm not in my

small group, I'm I'm not with others, I'm alone.

How do I, how do I humble myself?

How do I submit myself? How do I bring him great glory?

Just reflect and pray about that.

Ask God to show you clear and practical ways to bring Him that

glory. The.

The. The.

The. And as we continue even further

on this journey, I hope that I hope that you're enjoying the

presence of the Lord as you're thinking about him and and

submitting yourself to him. I'm reminded again, a very well

known Psalm, Psalm 100, make a joyful noise to the Lord, all

the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness.

Come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are

his. We are his people in the sheep

of his pasture. Enter his gates with

Thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is

good. His steadfast love endures

forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

And I'm just reminded of our opportunity to praise him for

who he is and thank him for all he has done, is doing and will

do, but also just to recognize his character.

He is good and he is love and he's faithful and he'll never

fail us. And so our, our, our

responsibility to submit ourselves to him, our entire

being, as Romans 12 indicates to us that that our whole life is

an act of worship. Our, our entire existence is an

act of worship because of his creation, the opportunity to, to

say back to him and to speak in to our hearts to him about how

good he is to us. So take a moment, take a moment

just to pray about the Lord's goodness, about his love, his

steadfast love that endures forever for you, his

faithfulness to you. He'll never fail you.

Just thank Him for that, praise Him for that for just a moment.

The. The.

The. Let's talk for a few minutes.

We've talked about some personal worship ideas.

What about some ways to best participate in public worship?

It's something we need to actually learn.

We need to come prepared for our public worship time.

Pastor Schuyler, help us. Yeah.

So in the public gathering, some of the easiest ways that we can

worship the Lord together are simple things like singing and

reading the Bible together, praying together, learning under

expository preaching of the Bible together, observing the

ordinances like baptism in the Lord's Supper and cheerful

giving. These are all ways that we can

come together corporately to worship the Lord.

And I think one of the key ones is singing.

And from the stage, while that is the simplest one, it's it's

something I actually see a lot less of where people are not

opening their mouths in worship. And it is one of the simplest

forms that we have to worship the Lord.

But it needs to be authentic. It needs to be genuine and he

wants to hear from his people. So singing is one of my personal

favorite ways to worship the Lord as I am a worship pastor.

But I really would want to encourage everyone when you come

and gather on Sundays that worship is so vital.

It is so important. You will get so much from

singing and praising and reading together just to open your mouth

and to sing along with the words.

Even if you don't know the words, it might be a new song.

I really want to encourage you that that's a really important

time in the service for us to come together collectively to

unite our voices and fellowship together and adore and praise

the one who is worthy of it all. Yeah, that reminds me of Psalm

96. O sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his

name, tell of his salvation from day-to-day, declare His glory

among the nations as marvelous works among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.

He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the

people are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him.

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

So when we do come together, you might say, well, I, I Can't

Sing. I don't know how to sing.

I don't sing very well. That that's not the issue.

The issue is, is how are you expressing the overflow of your

heart in a, in an act of praise before the Lord?

And if your heart does not overflow in that way, then what

you ought to be praying about right now is why, why does my

heart, why does my mind not want me to praise God in that way?

What is it about me? You know, one of the, one of the

issues of worship is this idea that God is to be feared above

all gods. But but that idea of fear is,

it's all, it's a reverence. It's this, it's just a

recognition of his awesomeness and majesty.

And so when we fear the Lord, we, we should have a sense of

almost being overwhelmed by that, which is kind of what

Isaiah went through. And to be overwhelmed by his

very presence in a sense that now I, I have to let that out.

I need to, I need to share what my heart is saying and

overflowing. And one of the ways to do that

is through that praise, through that singing, and then as we

read his word and hear his word. So I do hope that you will pray

diligently that when you come on Sunday morning that you would be

prepared. You know, sometimes I could ask

somebody, I said, did you, did you worship?

And what they mean is is they attended.

And that's not what I asked somebody.

But did you really worship on Sunday morning or did you just

watch a show? Did you just watch your

performance by other people and perhaps even critique them

instead? Did you actually worship and

honor God in that time together in that corporate setting, which

is something that is spoken about throughout Scripture?

So take a few moments and pray. Am I?

Am I really prepared for corporate worship?

Am I really ready? Does my heart cry out with the

glory in the splendor, the majesty of who God really is?

Take a few moments and pray about that.

The. The.

The. The.

The. Well.

Thank you all so much. Pastor Skyler, you got any final

thoughts about worship that you could share with us?

Absolutely. Just a reminder to our

listeners, you know, this is my personal philosophy of worship

as I see in the Scriptures and as I've studied, but just some

quick reminders of what true worship is, some things that

we've already gone over. True worship is a lifestyle.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable

to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Another is that true worship puts God above everything else

in our life. Worship should not be me

centered, it should be God centered.

Another is there is no right worship without right theology.

So we need to remember that in order to worship God effectively

and rightly, we need to know Him well.

We need to know His scriptures, what He says, what He asks us to

do, what He tells us to do in His Word.

Another is a true worshipper of God, knows that true worship is

genuine and is done out of a pure and sincere heart, not out

of requirement. Reminder that He wants our

worship, He desires to hear from His people, and we ought to come

ready to do that each and every day. 6 would be.

A true worshiper is constantly seeking to grow closer to God

and anticipates the opportunity to respond to God with words and

actions of praise. Again, just a reminder for

Sunday mornings, prepare yourself to come ready and

willing to lay burdens down at the altar and to worship the

Lord through the struggle that you might be facing.

Whatever you bring in, remember that He is willing to take it up

if you will offer it and surrender it to Him as an act of

worship. And lastly, music, like we've

already said, is a vehicle for worship, but it is not worship

itself. It is a means of expressing the

worship already present in our hearts through the new life

we've received in Christ Jesus. And that's a, that's a comment

from Bob Coughlin, which I really love.

So I'll end it with air, Yeah. Those are really important

points, and I just encourage that, listeners, those are also

every one of those points are things that you should be

praying about. So even now, as you continue in

a spirit of prayer or as you continue walking, think about

each one of these things and pray about not only are these

true in my life, but how could I grow and a better understanding

of each of these things. Those are really good.

Thank you so much for that. The.

The. The.

The. Well.

I just want to thank you for joining us.

Pastor Skyler, thanks so much for joining us today.

Really enjoyed. It listen.

Thank you for leading us every week in worship here.

And I just want to encourage those who are listening right

now, you, you might be a very active member of Englewood

Baptist and we're so thankful for you.

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday or at our midweek time

together. If you're not a member of a

church anywhere and you're looking for a Bible teaching

church, we would love to have you join us this Sunday for

worship. You could meet Pastor Skyler and

his worship team and join us as we worship the Lord together.

So I do hope that you'll come and join us and introduce

yourself to us. I thank you for joining us for

this episode. I pray that you'll go back and

listen to the other episodes. And I also look forward to the

future ones that we're going to do together.

We simply want to help you as you're walking in prayer,

walking with the Lord, abiding in him, whether you're doing

that out in your neighborhood, walking the dog, or whether

you're doing that in your living room or in your prayer closet.

I hope that these things are helpful, giving you things to

think about and giving you items to pray about because we just

want to lift up the Lord and honor Him with all that we do.

So thank you so much for joining us.

We look forward to joining us next time.