Worship Honours God

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message This morning is maybe

not a typical Mother's Day message.

This morning I'm going to minister on the subject of

worship. And first of all, worship does

honor God. It's the heart behind it.

It's not really how well you can sing or, or what you can do, but

the heart behind your worship. So, you know, many people think

it's primarily about music, which music is incorporated in

worship. But that's not the only thing

Abraham worshipped. In fact, the first time the word

worship in the Bible is mentioned is when the Lord asked

Him to sacrifice Isaac and He said we are going to go worship

the Lord. Wow.

And that had nothing to do with music.

That had to do with His obedience to God.

So even in our obedience, we are worshiping the Lord.

I'm going to cover just three points this morning, so I'm

going to talk about why do we worship?

Who is worship for and what is worship?

And these might seem like simplistic phrases or questions,

but I think it's good to talk about and to explore because all

of us come from different backgrounds, maybe different

churches, maybe we all have different ideas about what it

really means. So why do we worship God?

Why? Well, there is one true God, and

that's who I'm talking about this morning.

The God who created the heavens and the earth.

In Revelations 411 it says, you are worthy, O Lord our God, to

receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and they exist because you created

what you pleased. And I thought about reading

Genesis 1, but then I saw the scripture and I thought, really,

that just wraps it all up. We have to remind ourselves of

that because even the world is coming against us and telling us

God, maybe he didn't create everything.

Maybe we don't know that for sure, right?

Those questions are put out there.

But we believe that he is the creator of the universe and he

is He is worthy of our worship. You know, just small things we

praise people for like, oh wow, did you see what they made or do

you see what they did? Or do you see how they can do

that? Oh, that's amazing.

But what's more amazing than creation?

There is something that I realized, though.

One of the biggest things I realize is that a lot of people

have a different idea of God, and they grow up with different

ideas about who God is. Well, in America we have a lot

of tornadoes and hurricanes and different things.

And what do they call those acts of God, right?

It might be hard for you to worship somebody who you think

maybe ran a tornado through your town or a hurricane swept

everything away. That's being honest.

That's being real, right? God, a lot of people think maybe

he's mad at you. Maybe he's disappointed in you.

Maybe he's just up there waiting for you to make one little

mistake and you'll be struck with lightning.

But there are some people that think that, and there's that,

and that's out there. So I'm here to tell you this

morning, just like that last song we sang, God is good.

He's not mad at you. He's not upset at you.

He's not just waiting for you to make a mistake so he can give

you such a slap up beside the head.

No, God loves you. John 1010 tells us that the

thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy.

And Jesus said that I came, that they may have life and enjoy it

and have it in abundance to the full till it's overflowing.

That's the amplified classic. Jesus told the story of the

prodigal son to the disciples as a picture of our loving heavenly

Father, of how you can go make a mess of things and what he is

right there waiting for you with open arms.

He'll come running down that way, meet you halfway, throw a

party for you. That is God.

That is the God we serve. God is our provider.

God is our victory. You know, if you've heard of the

names of God like Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nisi,

Jehovah Sid Canoe, Jehovah Shalom, those are names of God

that the Israelites as they were getting to know God and God did

certain things for them. They said, oh, God is our

healer, Jehovah Rapha. That is one of his names because

that is who he is. Jehovah Jireh.

God is our provider. We've seen him provide for us.

That's how we know who he is. Jehovah Nisi means God, our

victory because he is caused us to be victorious.

Jehovah Shalom, our peace. That's who God is.

It's so beautiful that we have the Word and reading the Word of

God and loving to read the word of God it, it shows you who he

is. It shows you God's character.

The world will try to tell you all sorts of things about who

God is, but make sure that you're clinging on to the truth.

What is true about God? What is not true?

And maybe you need to ask yourself those questions.

Maybe you need to write some things down.

What do I think God is? Is that true?

Let me look in the Word and see. God is rich in mercy, our ever

present help in time of need. Psalms 40 is a beautiful Psalm,

one through three. You can go ahead and put that

up. I waited patiently for the Lord

to help me. He turned to me and heard my

cry. He lifted me out of the pit of

despair, out of the mud in the mire.

He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked

along. He's given me a new song to

sing, a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see what He has done and be amazed and they will put

their trust in the Lord. Isn't that beautiful?

He has lifted us up and He studies us as we walk.

He is such a good God. What is your why?

What is your why? I want you to think about that

today. Think about what God has done

for you. How has he picked you up?

How has he turned your life around?

Think about that this morning. Why do we worship God?

Who is worship for is our second point.

I can't imagine never worshiping, like never

acknowledging or never saying thank you.

Can you imagine? Well, we all had to be taught,

didn't we, to say please and thank you, good message because

we had our moms along say please say thank you.

We all had to be taught that, mainly because we all have that

unfortunate attribute of pride in US.

And so like, just imagine if you got a cone say, and your mom

said say thank you. I don't know if any of you out

there with children had any stubborn children, but I had a

couple and you would say say thank you.

And they go, they don't want to do they, they don't want to say

thank you. And there could be several

reasons because they say, well, mom said, if I was good in the

store, then I would get this cone.

I was good. So I deserve it, right?

Or I am super cute, so I should just get a cone because I'm just

super cute, right? Or you get that cone and you're

like, oh wow, look what I have, ha ha ha.

I have it now. It's mine.

I'm going to show all my friends what I have and they're going to

think I'm so amazing because of what I have.

Now, that's a simplistic illustration, but if you will,

you could take that a step further.

And as adults, we do the same thing, don't we?

Wow, Look at what I have. It must because I'm so smart.

I'm so good. I did everything I was told to

do. I did it right.

I deserve this. Pride keeps us from worship.

So unfortunately there are little things like that that

kind of speed bumps or hurdles and trying to worship the Lord.

Pride is destructive because 1. You can't know it all, I'm sorry

to tell you, and you can't ever have all the answers.

You can't do it alone. You weren't created that way as

much as you'd like to. All of our children at one

point, they say I do it, me, mine, I do it, don't help me,

which is good. We want the independence.

But sometimes, but unfortunately pride gets in the way.

But I'm here to tell you this morning, you were created to

worship. You were created to worship.

You're not an island unto yourself.

You're created to be in community.

You're created to need one another, and you're created to

have a relationship with your Heavenly Father.

So what about at church on Sunday?

Do we want not want anyone to know how much that we really

need God? Do we want, We may want to lift

our hands too much or we might want to be too demonstrative

because we have to be very proper and keep our composure.

And you know, God's there and I'm here, but we're good.

Like, you know, I've only needed God a little bit in my life, not

a whole lot. I don't, I don't know.

I don't know. I'm not saying that's you, but

when we are worshiping God, we are acknowledging him.

We are acknowledging who he is. We are acknowledging him as our

provider. We are acknowledging him as our

healer. We are acknowledging him.

And actually what it does when we worship him is it activates

our faith. It's a faith activator.

When you get your eyes off of your own problems and I'm the

one who can answer the problems, this is this is amazing.

This is when miracles can happen.

This is when answers can come is when we choose to worship God no

matter what. So I'm going to read to you a

little story that some of you may have heard before, but I

think it's worth reading. And this is going to be the

story of King Jehoshaphat. And this takes place in Second

Chronicles 20. I just picked out a few

scriptures of the story, so I'll read through those starting in

verse 2. I think you have them up there

so you can put them in. Yeah.

So messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, a vast army from

Edom is marching against you beyond the Dead Sea.

They're already at Hazen Tamar. And this was another name for

ungodi. Jehoshaphat was terrified by

this news and begged the Lord for guidance.

He ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting.

Imagine as a nation we would fast and pray.

What would happen? So people from all over the

towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord's help.

And he prayed, O Lord God of our ancestors, you alone are God

who's in heaven. You're the ruler of all the

kingdoms of the earth. You're powerful and mighty.

What is he doing? He's worshiping God.

No one can stand against you. Verse 12 Our God, won't you stop

them? We are powerless against this

mighty army that is about to attack us, and we don't know

what to do, but we are looking for your help.

Verse 13 As all the men of Judah stood before the Lord, with

their little ones and their wives and their children, the

spirit of the Lord came upon one of the men standing there.

His name was Jehazio, son of Zechariah and his lineage there.

Verse 15 he said, Listen, all you people of Judah and

Jerusalem, listen, King Jehoshaphat, this is what the

Lord says, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged by this

mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

Verse 16 Tomorrow March out against them.

You will find them coming up through the ascentives at the

end of the valley that opens to the wilderness of Jeru.

But you will not need to fight. Take your possessions, stand

still, and watch the Lord's victory.

He is with you. O people of Judah and Jerusalem,

don't be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow,

for the Lord is with you. Then King Jehoshaphat bowed low

with his face to the ground. And all the people of Judah and

Jerusalem did the same, worshipping the Lord.

After consulting the people, the King appointed singers to walk

ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising Him for

His holy splendor. And this is what they sang.

Give thanks to the Lord. His faithful love endures

forever. And at that very moment they

began to sing and give praise. The Lord caused the armies of

Amon and Moab and Mount Cyr to start fighting amongst

themselves. Moab and Amon turned against

their allies of Mount Seir, killed every one of them, and

after they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began

attacking each other. And that was it.

They were victorious. They didn't have to do anything.

But what did they do? They put worshippers out in

front of the army. Who would do that?

But people? This is a type and shadow.

The Old Testament is there for us to learn from and to apply to

our life. Some of you may find yourselves

in some real battles, in some serious situations.

What are you going to do about it?

How are you going to overcome? I submit to you that you have to

worship, you have to worship. You have to humble yourself and

without hesitation, surrender to Him.

God, I can't fix this on my own. I can't figure it out.

I don't know the way you do. And that is why, that is why,

why we worship. And this point is, who is it

for? Do you know God desires our

worship and He will be worshipped because of who He is.

But the answer to who is worship for?

It's you. It's actually for you.

And if that kind of messes with your head a little bit, just

stick with me. But it's so that you are in the

position to receive from him. So it puts you in a humbling

position to receive what the answer from God, to hear from

God for him to work and move and go before you and your behalf.

If you're like that child who goes, I'm OK, I got everything.

I don't need to say thank you. I have what I need.

And when we see like an unthankful child or some, you

know, a child is not thankful, this does kind of put like a

little bad taste in your mouth like, and I think kind of that

same way with God. If we're not thankful and we're

not worshiping him, it's I mean, he loves you unconditionally.

You know, it really puts, it puts something between you and

him. God, he doesn't need our

worship. He doesn't need it.

We need it. We need to remember who he is

and what he's done. It helps activate our faith so

we can know he he will do it again.

And that's why we say those names of God, Jehovah Jireh.

Why? Because he is a provider and

he's done it before and what he's going to do it again.

And when we worship Him, and we call on Him, and we remind him,

you, this is who you are, Lord, and this is who you are in my

life. Amen.

So what is worship? The definition is to honor or

bow in submission, to pay homage, to show reverence for a

divine being or supernatural power, to regard with great or

extravagant respect, honor or devotion.

Worship as a noun is an act of expressing reverence offered a

divine being or supernatural power or an object regarded as

sacred or worthy. And because you were created to

worship, you will worship something.

It will happen and you before you even realize it, you might

not even know it. And I used to read, you know, in

the Old Testament when it said the children of Israel came out

of Egypt and then they started worshipping a golden calf.

I'm like, what's that's so weird?

And and in our culture, it just feels kind of strange.

Why would I all of a sudden go, oh, golden calf?

But we have those today. It could, I mean, for some

reason we, we find beautiful jewels and crystals in the

ground and we go, oh, it's a stone.

What? What?

Or it's a it's a famous musician.

Oh my gosh. I just want to be around and I

want to listen to their music. I just want or it's a sports

team. Sorry, I don't want to step

anybody's toes. And hey, Ireland won yesterday.

Woo, yay, but or not yay. Maybe you weren't rooting for

them. Sorry, but and why?

Usually it's because look how great that piece of music is.

Look how amazing that art is. Look how they can kick that ball

down the field. Wow, sorry, I don't mean to like

light of it, but but like, whoa, I can't do that.

They can do they're doing such an amazing job.

We're created to worship, worship.

Wow, wow. We we love it.

We love to go to the stadium and we love to shout and we love to

jump and we love to cheer, right?

We love it. Come on, you love it anyone?

If it's not sports, it's music. It's something, it's something.

And you know, I've had people tell me in the Irish church it's

not cultural to be very expressive and I understand

cultural differences. But if it was so cultural, what

really what it means is the culture of the church has been

this way, but culturally, as a people, I don't see that.

I've see expressiveness, I see exuberance, and I see

liveliness. You know what I'm saying?

No, I'm not asking. No, you know, one continent.

I haven't been to Australia and I haven't been to Africa.

I need to go because I'm telling you, I would like really love to

be in some worship services in Africa.

I've only just seen them. I've only just seen them, but oh

man, do they know how to worship.

And but yeah, so I understand there is there are cultural

differences, but I see that in kind of any culture, and I've

been to a lot of different places around the world.

There is still something in you, no matter how reserved of a

people you are to be expressive in some way, shape or form.

And I'm not commanding or telling you you have to be a

certain way in worship. But I think it comes from the

first thing I was talking about. Like, like who?

Who is God and why? Why do we worship?

And when you think about why and who he is, that will help you

know. So worship comes from the heart.

This is on our what is worship point in John 423 through 24.

Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and he says the time is

coming and indeed is here now when true worshipers will

worship the Father in spirit and truth.

The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way,

for God is spirit and those who help them must worship in spirit

and in truth. This passage, Jesus is speaking

to the Samaritan woman and she's kind of kind of the argument of

the day was where are we supposed to worship?

And the Samaritan says this is where we're supposed to worship

at this mountain. And then the the rest of the

Jews were saying you have to worship in Jerusalem.

And Jesus just completely sidesteps that argument and says

it's not a certain place. The time is coming.

And because of what he did on the cross, it's not about a

location where the Holy Spirit resides.

The Holy Spirit resides in each one of us, and we are to worship

Him in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means

worship that flows from the inner person.

It's sincere, it's alive, it's not mechanical or forced.

It comes from a heart that recognizes the greatness of God.

Worship that honors God is not just singing songs.

It's not just about worshipping when things are going great and

when things are really going well.

He's worthy all the time of our worship.

He chose us to make Himself like we are now called the temple of

the Holy Spirit. He dwells within us and

therefore we should worship Him. Worship involves surrender.

It really does, Romans 12/1 says.

And so do your brothers and sisters.

I plead with you to give your bodies to God, because all He

has done for you let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the

kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship

Him. There's a beautiful definition.

It is a sacrifice, a sacrifice of praise.

Paul gives a profound definition.

Worship is surrender, surrendering ourselves to him.

In the Old Testament, worship often coincided with sacrifices

that were made, and so we don't have to do that anymore.

But then what? What does that mean for us

today? How would do we sacrifice, how

do we submit to God in that way? And I kind of touched on it like

your obedience, not just doing it your way, but God's way.

Being obedient is an act of worship.

And it also means it's not confined to a Sunday morning.

And you guys know that. I think especially being in a

hotel, it's not about this beautiful building we have to

worship in. I mean, it is a beautiful

building, but and we're grateful, so grateful for it,

but worship is wherever you are. I will say though, that your

worship time at home prepares you for your worship time here.

If your only time you ever worship is in church on a Sunday

morning, then I do submit to you that you are not receiving all

that you can from God when you worship at home.

That's personal time. Same thing with praying.

But when you come together and you bring that that culture of

honor and worship together, there's something called a

corporate anointing. Why did Jehoshaphat call for the

whole country to come together? There's it's so powerful, you

guys. It's so powerful even for a

husband and wife, just the two of you, if you're going through

something, you grab their hand and you say, let's worship

together. That's so powerful.

Getting somebody else to connect with, to agree with you.

But as a church, corporate worship can be powerful, Hebrews

1315 says. Therefore, let us offer through

Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our

allegiance to his name. There again we have the word

sacrifice of praise. And yeah, we, our worship is not

based on circumstances, but based on who God is.

And you know, we have this thing right here where we say

experience God, grow in God and share God.

And the Lord gave us a vision when he gave us the vision for

this church. One of the first things that we

agreed on as part of the vision for this church is that this

would be a place where people experience God.

And you may say, well, Pastor Amy, how do you know that that

can happen, how you can't make anything happen?

Of course not. Of course not.

But this is going to be a House of worship.

This is going to be a place in of honor.

This is going to be a place where God is invited in, where

he is invited to move. And if we grab a hold of that,

you know, and so my, my other point here is worship is not

just for you, it's also for those around you.

Remember Paul and Silas when they worshipped in the midnight

hour, They didn't just get set free.

What happened? Everybody got set free.

Their worship affected everyone. Imagine I want you to think

about this seriously. Your worship effects everyone in

this room. If everybody came in expecting

God to move, if everyone came in prepared and ready to worship,

you know, Satan's always after unity and, and things like that.

So keeping our, ourselves unified as one body is really

important. And I especially, you know, we

come from all different cultures, which I love that our

church is so multicultural. It's so beautiful.

It's really what the Kingdom of God looks like.

And so, so one thing that we can come together on is why we're

all here is to worship the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

That's what brings us together, isn't it?

I want you to see how valuable your worship time is and how

valuable worship can be in church.

And if we can honor God with our first fruits, we honor God with

our our money and our our tithe and things like that.

We also honor God with our time. You can honor God by getting up

early and spending that bit of time with Him in the morning.

That's honoring the first fruits of your day, if you will.

And I like to think of coming to church on a Sunday morning as

honoring God with the first fruits of your week.

It is a spiritual discipline. It's something you have to put

time aside for. But when you do that, that

honors God. And it's not just honoring God,

but it's also honoring each other.

And your being here makes a difference in other people's

lives. So I want you to get that

picture. Coming ready to worship God and

expecting God to move. Being here and prepared and

ready, preparing your heart. There is a scripture that says

that we're not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and sometimes we

can. By not honoring each other and

honoring what God is trying to do, it is possible to frustrate

God's plan and frustrate what he's trying to do.

And so you have a part to play and even what happens in your

own life and then what happens here in church.

So I hope today that you can take away some, just maybe a

renewed appreciation for worship and for coming ready and

expecting to experience God. So we're doing more than just

singing on a Sunday morning. We're honoring God.

We're experiencing God, and we're giving him permission and

allowing an atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to move.

Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church Podcast this

week. If it was a blessing to you,

share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph

Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.