What Does Praise & Worship Have To Do With Me? | Pr Steven Soon

You're listening to a message to go from ax Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Gonna bring us through the word today, you know. Allow

me to just also send greetings and regards from Passer

Kenneth and Passa Sandra. They are missing you. They are

currently all the way in UK. They're in ex London

today and they send their love and regards. And I

say this before every time we say this, right, it's

not just like formality. They actually are thinking about you guys.

For at your fact. Let me tell you this. We

send all our messages to Pasta so he actually reads

about it and he prays about it and he prays

for our church plans. Right, so he sends his love

and regards. To keep them in prayer is a crazy man.

For them traveling a lot. It was just missions conference

and now they're traveling UK and then they're going over

to Germany. Keep them in prayer. Pray for good health

and for strength that they are able to be an

encouragement to all our people in UK and Germany. A man,

all right, allow me it'side with a word of prayer

and we'll dive right into it. Let's pray. Thank you

Lordeljah for Lord. Thank you Lord for today. Thank you

Lord again for this beautiful, beautiful space that you've gifted us,

that we have this opportunity to meet here. Thank you God,

Law that for your favor there's always upon us. Lord,

you are a faithful God. Lord is I just can't

imagine so much more how you love your people, your children. Lord.

There are people here. We may not know what the

needs are, but Lord you know. So I pray God

Lord that even as they honor you, I know God Lord,

that you are a faithful God, that you will also

supply for every lack and every need. Thank you Lord.

You have called us to be the heat and not

the tale. Lord, and I pray that over every single

individual here that will be more than overcome us in

Christ Jesus. Thank you Lord. Even as you share the word,

allow this word to fall upon good ground that we

may receive from you. Thank you Lord. Pray all this

in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, So the thing

that has God, the word that God has given me,

is a lot to do today to praise and worship.

All right, I'm just gonna ask you guys to throw

out when you think about praise and worship. What are

some words that pop out in your mind? You can

just throw it out, no words, that's very concerning. What

do you think of when you think about praise and worship?

A door? Okay, a door? Or adoration or adoration? Okay,

I thought it's that door. Okay, anymore anymore sing? Okay,

honor okay, anymore? Done? Okay? Anymore? Something else? Oh okay.

I'll just thinking that you're shy and you know more

than I think you know. But it's okay. You know,

prays and worship being for me every time when I

grew up thinking about prais and worship, I think about

the band. I think about coolness, because when you're part

of the praise and worship team, it's always cool. And

that's why as a kid, when I see all the

go go ta tepling guitar and all that, I want

to be that cool one day. I want to be

part of the praise and worship team. But I at

that time didn't really understand what praise and worship means

to me. It's band, It's heal song. Back then, my

time was hell Song United. Last time there was this

album I heard Revolution. This was like two thousand and eight. Yeah,

when the album came out, that was like the gem

like one way Jesus right some of you to you guys,

it's probably a new song ready because you've never heard

of it. But yes, I grew up thinking like you know,

it's all the cool things, right. It's music band before

there were electronic music today that you hear a lot

of the prais and worship songs, it was all like

full or rock band. You got like three guitars on

stage and then one bass and all that. So I

don't know what comes to mind when you think about

prais and worship. The thing that God has put into

my heart for XBU and for a while, actually it's

been two months that God has put this into my

heart to share with you all is to actually he said,

let's get the house in order, and what that means

is basically, let's get praise and worship right in XBU.

And there's something that I believe the Holy Spirit wants

to teach us, wants to guide us, and to just

get to another level of praising God and worshiping God

and actually understanding what that means. I'm gonna do a

little bit so my title of today is, actually, what

does praise and worship have to do with me? All right?

Praise and worship should be the worship team's job, right,

nothing to do with me. So we're gonna explore a

little bit about prayers and worship. I've got a little

bit of illustration. I'm gonna borrow Sharon's guitar. I hope

I don't reckon?

Uh?

Okay, all right? So what do you think is this function?

That is the function of the guitar to play to

play golf? He guys, it's not a trick question, can answer?

And what what is the function of the guitar to

play music? Yeah? Very good? But I can use this

as a hammer, right, can it not? Sharon? Can?

Right?

It can hit nails? Right? Actually can right? Huh? Prove it, Sharon,

she asked. He asked me to prove it? Can I

use this to play badminton? Can? Right?

Can?

Right? Right? Cana? Sharon? They say, can I borrow the

next time flay badminton? I'll borrow this, okay. I can

use this actually as a decoration too, right, Actually it

looks really good if I hang out on the wall, right,

But is it what is made for? Yes, John, say yes,

I'm sorry, Charon. We're gonna use it for all the

things that we just mentioned, right, oh man, But is

it what it's made for? Is it made to be

a hammer? Is it made to be a badminton record?

We all know it's not right, but it can be

used for that, right. Actually, if you think about it,

we can use it to play golf. It probably will

only survive two shots before it breaks, but I can

still use it to play golf if I want to. Right.

So what why I mentioned this is that just like

how a musical instrument has its function and purpose, all

of us when God created us, we also have our

function and purpose. And I'm going to share with you

this and this is biblical. The first point is this,

we are created to and for praise and worship. If

you ever ask yourself what is my purpose in this world?

And God has not coming with a divine voice either

whispering to you or like a thundering voice to tell

you what you're supposed to do, you already have one direction.

You're created to praise and worship God. So I just

want to encourage you if you ever come to a

point where you don't know God what am I here for?

Start praising and worshiping God, because that is your core

created function and purpose. Don't just take it for me.

Let's take it from scripture. If you have a Bible,

if you encourage all of us to have our physical bibles.

All right, would you turn with me to the Book

of Isaiah, chapter for retrieverse twenty one. All right, it's

in the Old Testament, one of the prophet's books, Book

of Isaiah, Chapter for Detriever twenty one. I'm gonna read

this for us. It says this, the people I have

formed for myself, that they shall declare my praise. If

you look at the sentence structure, God first say that

I have formed you that you shall declare my praise.

So I hope this is the first evidence you can

see that we are created to praise God. I say

it for the three verse seven, just a few versus above.

It says this everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

This in NIV, in n k JV is right here.

It says everyone who is called by my name, whom

I created for my glory, who have formed and made

Oh it's the same all right. So over here, if

you're called and all of you, I just want to

tell you this. You are already called by God. You

are created for his glory. How do we give God glory?

Let's do another illustration married couples. Can you raise your

hands just for me for visualization? Okay, all right, Victor, Hey,

I'm gonna put you on the spot now. Okay, hey,

where's your wife is over there? Okay? If you give

your wife glory? Right, you glorify Audrey? Right, what would

you do? Like you're show off, show off Audrey? What

will you do? Ah? Uh huh ha? And then h

what did Charny say? Oh? There is cringing so hard

right now? She said, don't don't do this, Okay, you

just share what would you what would you do? Uh

huh ah ah. Okay, I keep going. What else do

you do? Uh ah? So that will glorify her? You

feel okay, it's very good? Okay are you embarrassed? But yeah, okay,

all right. One thing that I know, Victor, you do

to make her feel like like up there right, so

that you will also say good things about her. You

probably say, yeah, I tell you are yeah, uh you know,

it's the most beautiful person I've ever met. You probably

say a lot of things already, don't there, don't look up. Really.

You'll probably say she can, she can play guitar, she

can do all things, so well she has she's so

good with kids. You probably say all this right, right,

So for the husband's hey, you'll probably say the same

for your wife, right, if you want to do it,

Why should you do that about your husband's right? For

your husband's right, you say, oh, my husband is so strong, right,

it's so good looking, it's so uh, you know, so steady.

Why I share this is, let's look at the verse again.

When God says that everyone he created, all of us,

we are created for his glory, how do you bring

God glory? I'll give you a simple answer. You praise God.

Just like if I want to say, you know, Eric

does such an amazing thing with sound, I won't glorify

his skills, right, I'll go to Eric is fantastic at

doing sound. And how many of you agree that Eric

does does it very well? Yeah, yeah, he does an

amazing job. So when we want to bring up glory,

the first and most obvious thing for us to do

is to actually praise God. And over here if you

look at scripture again, we are created for his glory

and to bring him glory. Therefore we have to praise

simple equation right there some hundred and fifty verse six.

You can flip over to that scripture. It says here,

let everything that has breath praise the lot. Everyone here

has breath, right if you don't, let me know our

codor ambulance. Okay, you have all right, so you're breathing.

You're here. So everything that has breath ought to praise

the Lord right here, function and purpose he Brews theirteen fifteen.

Now we jump to the New Testament he Brews the

teen fifteen. If you can flip with me, also fifteen

Hebrews thirteen fifteen says this true Jesus. Therefore, let us

continually all refer to God a sacrifice of praise, the

fruit of lips that confess His name, that we continually

offer up a sacrifice of praise. I want you to

illmak the scripture. We're going to look back at this later.

If we are not praising and worshiping God constantly and always,

then we will be like the guitar used to play badminton.

It feel it feels off, you don't feel right. You

will not be able to experience the fulfillment of accomplishing

your purpose. I can feel right for the luthier that

created the guitar. If the lutia found finds out that

the guitar is being used to playing pong, not to

play music, I think the luthier will cry. They will

buy back from you. Maybe let me find it another

person that will actually use it for what is intended

to be useful. If we have ever come to a

place where we feel like there's something that I don't

feel fulfilled. I feel like I'm not living my purpose.

I feel like I'm not living in a way that

feels right in my life, I can tell you this.

The answer is in praising and worshiping God, and we're

gonna dive deeper. You may ask, so simple, praising God

and worshiping God, then will I will have accomplished my purpose.

We're gonna dive deeper. What actually praising and worshiping and tails?

Since we are created for praise and worship, here's another

point that means if we are not praising and worshiping God,

we will find ourselves praising and worshiping other things naturally

because it's our natural inclination. It's in our nature to

want to praise and to want to worship. So if

you're not directing that towards God, then naturally you do

it elsewhere, either doing it to our loved ones, our spousers,

our children. Sometimes, if you're not careful, even ourselves, we

may find ourselves being put in a place where we

worship ourselves. And what does that mean? When we worship ourself,

that simply means we are putting our own desires, our

own will, our own dreams and ambitions above what God wants.

And that is where we find ourselves worshiping ourselves. I'm

gonna share a little story about Thomas Beacher. We're gonna

see over here and some looking lad. I'm gonna share

this story, so actual person, all right. So before I

talk about Thomas Beacher, I want to talk about his brother,

Henry Beecher, back in eighteenth century America, was a very

famous pastor, an arator, orator, basically public speaker. Right. He's

known to go to halls that are fully packed with

people wanting to hear him preach. Very famous preacher. You

can look him up. Look look him up. Henry Ward

Beecher is his name. So there was this one time

where he went in this place where he's supposed to preach.

But then there was a visiting minister, another pastor that

came uh and he actually said, I want this pastor

to preach in my pulpit. This pastor is none other

than his very own brother, Thomas Peacher. So at that time,

the congregation didn't know that, you know, Henry won't be preaching,

his brother will be preaching. They didn't know. When they

found out is when Thomas walked up the pulpit. And

when he walked up to the pulpit, he started to

see people leaving because the people were like, I came

from for Henry. I came to hear Henry preach God's word.

And here came in another fella, Thomas, I don't even

know who he is, coming up to share God's word.

And people started to move out towards the exits, disappointed.

And then that's when Thomas Beacher stood at the pulpit

and he said this very loudly, all who have come

here today to worship Henry Ward Beecher, you may now

withdraw from the church, but if you're here to hear

God's word, you better stay. When we come to church,

what are we looking for? I'm sorry, I'm not the

most fluent of preachers. I'm not the most famous preachers.

But are you here to listen to a famous preacher?

When you say that you're praising and worshiping God, what

is it that you're looking for? Is there a full

band one day? And is it a full drum set

that you're looking for with killer music and killer sound system?

I'm sorry, we don't have that. Yeah, So I'm gonna

be as bold to speak like how Thomas Beer said,

if you're here for this, you can go to another

place because we won't have this one day if we

grow to have that praise God. But that's not the

main point because at the end of the day, we're

here to praise and worship God. So question then, I

would like to ask us, is this who or what

are we worshiping? So that is the introduction for you.

We are created for worship. We are created to praise,

and if you're not doing that towards God, it means

we're doing it somewhere else. To other people. We may

have the form of coming to church and all that,

but only we know in our hearts truly if we

are actually praising and worshiping God. So that is the

first point. The second point is this worship is more

than just singing like how I thought. I thought, Oh,

it's being part of the band that is praise and worship.

Worship is a lifestyle. I love this quote by William Temple.

He used to be the Archbishop of Canterbury Anglican Church

in the UK, and this is what he defines worship

as quickening the conscience by the holiness of God, feeding

the mind with the truth of God, purging the imagination

by the beauty of God, opening the heart to the

love of God, and devoting the will to the purpose

of God. I love how he defines worship. And you

suddenly realize worship is not just about using our vocal

cause sing. You suddenly realize worship touches the mind, touches

the heart, touches our will. If this has not happened

for us yet, then we have not truly worshiped. So

this is a very good, uh supplementary compass. I would

say to check whether we are at a place where

we that we are truly worshiping God. If I can

just round this up into one sentence, this is what

worship is. Worship is obedience to the Lord. That is

worship the Lord says, then I'll do tough thing to

do right. What that means that if I'm not obedient,

all my worship I think was worship doesn't count. Yes, unfortunately.

And when we say that worship is obedience, then it

also means that when we praise and worship God, we

don't only do it when we feel like it, because

it's no longer about how we feel. We worship God,

not because we feel like it. We worship God because

He's worthy to be worshiped full stop. Ah. God today

got starting in a really horrible jem. I really you

don't feel like it. Lah. But then we will then

realize that the subject we're worshiping is not ourselves no

longer God, So we have to be very aware of that.

Genesis twenty two, verses one to five is when worship

the word worship was first mentioned. And I'm gonna read

us this scripture and if you could, you know, if

you don't have your Bibles, if you can refer to

the screen but if you have, I would implore and

encourage you to read it along with me. The one

on the screen is NKJV. I'm going to read from

the NIV version that's in my hands. Genesis twenty two,

Verse one five. You're there, say yes, I'm there, All right, Cool,

let's read the word of God. Now. Some time later,

God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham, here I am,

he replied verse two. Then God said, take your son,

your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to

the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt

offering on one of the mountains. I will tell you

about verse three. Early the next morning, Abraham got up

and settled his donkey. He took with him two of

his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut

enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for

the place God had told him about. On the third day,

Abraham looked up and saw the place in the discs

God has shown him where to sacrifice. He said to

his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and

the boy go over there. We will worship, and then

we will come back to you. Not he didn't say

we'll worship and we will come and get you to

go to the mountain where we will do the sacrifice.

Over here, worship seems to be saying sacrifice, and we're

gonna look at the original text. The Hebrew word for

worship is shaka, say shakha shakha. It means to bow

down and to weigh it down, right, to bow down

before the Lord. And the interesting definition here the second

part says weigh it down. And at that point I

felt the Holy Spirit minister to me and say, Stephen,

if you worship me, will you weigh down your own desires?

Will you weigh down and suppress your own ones and

dreams to obey what I want you to do. So

to worship seems to say that we should push everything

that we want for ourselves down and to put God up.

That is shakhah. So today I will ask you ask

us this question. Would you bow your feelings down to God?

Would you bow your desires down to God? Would you

bow even your own will down to God? He Brews

the teen fifteen. I'm gonna flip to that real quick.

He Brews the teen fifteen says this just now we

read it through Jesus. Therefore, let us continually offer to

God a sacrifice of praise. Now do you see why

it's called sacrifice of praise because it comes with a cost,

And the cost is our own desires, our own ones.

When we want to praise God, when we want to

worship God, we ought to come in a posture where

we bow down our own desires. It's not about us anymore,

It's about God. It's called a sacrifice of praise because

it costs us something God. I don't feel like lifting

my hands to you. Notice I didn't say lifting our

hands for the congregation to see. Honestly doesn't matter. But

when you leave your hands, when you leave your voices

to God, when you dance, it's for the Lord. It's

not to put on a show. David say this, I

will be even more undignified than this, because his own

family said, why are you being so silly dancing like

this for God in front of all your servants. But

David said, I will be even more undignified than this

if I'm doing it to the Lord. It's not about

how we feel. But we do it anyways because God

deserves all our praise and all our worship. Just when

we are worshiping God, reminded me of something he showed

me about half a year back. I was at our

Senior Passirst Office retreat, our Global SPO Vision retreat. We

were doing it in one of the one of the

halls in a hotel in kl and the thing is

the hotel, the room where we are meeting, the hall

we're meeting, it is above the cafe, right, they have

a cafe. And at that time I was leading worship

and we were singing, and we really sang, really sang

out loud, and then Kenyak came and said, I think

we need to be softer a bit. Hotel stuff complained,

so we had to suppress our voices. I have to

play it a bit softer, and we have to sing

like this, like how I'm talking to you now, because

it was very loud and it was affecting the hotel guests.

Fair enough, right, we also want to be considerate. But

at that point, the Holy Spirit spoken to my heart

and said, Stephen, you just experience the future, because there

will come a time where we won't be able to

do this. I can tell you very honestly, it is biblical.

There will be a time where we won't probably be

able to meet in an open setting in groups of hundreds.

We probably will have to meet at homes. That's why

we do worship at homes. The very hard of us

doing worship at homes. And I'm gonna share a little

bit about that because we have some of you never

probably have heard of this. We're gonna be doing a

service in a homes setting, small group setting at the

end of the month, all right. So if you're not

part of home set, don't worry, you won't be lost,

you won't back like, don't worry, just come. We invite

you to our homes, all right. We are doing that

because we recognize that we as a church must always

be ready to meet in small groups in a situation

where we can no longer meet in such a setting.

And I can tell you this, it can come anytime

without warning because it has happened in other nations. The

next time Bassa CD comes, so she visits often with

the family, because you know from Karachi they are and

Basasdia our pastors in ex Karachi. You should ask their

story of what happened in Vietnam, because when they were there,

they were also in a church where suddenly the authorities

say this sun today Sunday itself, you cannot meet here,

go back, and one had to dispers and then then

on they had to meet in houses, not as a

big group. They had a huge group. They have to

split up and suddenly they were multiple churches. You should

hear their stories. And why I share this because I

truly believe there will come a day where this will happen.

Is it a bad thing? Honestly, I don't feel so.

Who says God's power is lesser when we mean in

a smaller setting. I actually feel it. You'll be larger

and know bigger because then more people will be involved.

That's why I believe. But there will come a day.

At that time when we had to lower our voices

in our worship, Holy Spirit just prompted me and say,

you know, Stephen, there will be a day where we

won't be able to sing out loud like this, and

you'll be better prepare the church for this. I don't

want to say while we can, let's do it, because

there will be a day that even that will be

stripped away from us. It's persecution and it has happened

around the world. I'm saying this not to scare you, Okay,

but to encourage you that while we have this privilege

from the Lord to do, while we can have such

a nice space every week to do it, let's give

it all with God and not waste it away. Let's

not go one day when all this happens we go, oh,

we should have I should have. It would be too late.

So while God has put us in such a season

where we have this freedom, let's honor the season right

and just as an encouragement to us when we praise

and worship God well in such freedom, let's not take

it for granted. Let's really honor the Lord with it. Right.

And of course what I'm talking about in this is

in the form of singing and with our voices, playing

our instruments. That's a large part of worship. But that

is not worship. I just want to let us know.

It is a form that helps us to our hearts

to turn towards God and worship. But song in itself,

music in itself, is not worship. Sometimes you forget right.

Worship again. Point number two, if you're writing notes, is

worship is a lifestyle. It's the way we live. Worship

is in the act of when we walk bast someone

God says, go and blessed this person. And male, when

you obey God, that is worship unto the Lord. You know,

when you God put into your heart to go and

have conversation with someone in your office that nobody likes

to talk to, and you obey and you do it,

that is worship unto the Lord. Just now, John sad

about you know, if you do it to the list

of this, you do it unto me, that is worship.

Just want to encourage us to leave and ask usself

a question. Have we been worshiping God? Or have we

been worshiping We think it's God, but it's actually something else.

Preferences of music, Ah, yeah, we always sing extra song

boring us, Uh, Joseiah, how oh, speechless worship is not

about us. Just's not just about the songs we sing.

I can tell you this and this is a just

reminded of a story. Uh. I can't remember which preacher

was this one famous preacher. Basically he uh was uh

rotated to a pasta. He was rotated to a church

to shepherd the church. When he went there that some

day he preached his first sermon and the whole congregation

a pasta. There's such a good message. God, send the

right person to this church. Thank you, thank you for coming.

Second week he came, he preached the same sermon. Then

the congregation went like, hmm, okay, we call him some slack.

Maybe he's justing no time to prepare the second sermon.

So he preached. Did we preach the same sermon? Then

the elders of the church cannot a hand ready, that's

French four. Cannot take it, cannot take it ready, went

up to this passa minister. We don't like what you're doing.

You're lazy. You only preach one sermon for the past

three weeks. We want another person to come and shepherdess.

You know what, the pussa said. The pussa look at them.

Why do I have to preach another message when you

am not even applying the first one that I've preached. Guys,

you're very blessed. Every week we've got different preachers. Because

when you talk about worship, when you talk about praise,

you talk about honoring God. What is it you're looking

for freshness, something different every time to keep us excited.

What is worshiped to you? Something good to reflect on,

because at the end of the day, you know even

Jesus says, all right to the Samaritan women woman, he said,

there'll come a day where God is looking for people

who worship him in spirit and in truth, not in songs.

In all, donce, it's no longer the preference of movement

is the heart, spirit and in truth. Are we worshiping

God in spirit and in truth? Or are we blinded

and call up with preferences? A bit hard on this message,

but this is the truth, and if we want to

have break truth in our life, I'm gonna share this.

This is the next part ready, and I will wrap

it up. If you want to have power in your

spiritual work with God, you've got to get your praise

and worship right, no other way. And let me share

if you why. Psalm twenty two of US three says this,

but you are holy and thrown in the praises of Israel.

We like to use this scripture to say, God, you

dwell in the praises of your people. That's another version,

another translation. So God inhabits the praise of his people.

We all recognize that when God is somewhere, when God

is present, there is power. Right. And so if you

do the equation again, if where God is, there is power,

and the way to bring God in is to praise.

Then when we praise, there is power. But we got

to praise the right way, okay, and we're going to

do it. Another study on the Hebrew word, the word

and throw here that's being used is yah shap. Everyone says,

yeah shah, all right. Yahshah means to sit, to remain,

and to dwell. Do you feel God dwelling in your means?

If your answer honestly is yes, keep it up. Chances

are your praise and worship is in the right posture

and in the right way. But if you reflect and

you go like, I haven't been sensing God's presence in

a while, you got to ask yourself why it's God

dwelling in your meats. And if you go back to

the equation, I would say, are you praising God right?

Have you been praising God? That would be the question.

If you want power that comes from the Lord in

every area of a life, in the things that you do,

you want to sense God's peace and presence in your life,

You've got to get the praise and worshiping right. There's

no other way because when you praise right, when you

worship right, It shows that your heart is in alignment

to God and your whole drainage is not clocked direct

excess of His blessings, of His power, of his anointing

in your life. And sometimes if you feel like you

come to church ah man, I don't really feel the

presence of God. Then the question is then are you

seconding your praise and worship to the worship team or

are you praising and worship being God yourself? You know

the tough one. I think in Xbu I can tell

you very honestly, we are very blessed with musicians and

singers in our church plan. There are other church plans

that are struggling because they don't have musicians. That's why

we actually, you know, Josiah for a period of time

was being sent to cheer us once a month to

worship lead because they don't have people. We are very blessed,

but the thing is being very blessed. That is also

the other flips out the coin where there's a danger,

where they do it so well and naturally they become

our crutch. We second our worship to the band. They

choose the songs nine sounding songs. We sing along. Sometimes

we don't even sing. We let them sing. Sometimes we say, hey,

let them clap, but they cannot clip. They're playing instruments

or the clip and we seconded to them. I say

this because I'm also a pout of the worship team

and we talk about this a lot. So when we

say that God, I don't feel God in my myths

or in our myths, we got to dive deeper and

ask USLF a question why Because I tell you, even

if one day we are only having a guitar with

one string and the worship leader is someone that can sing,

do you believe that God's presence can still feel this place?

I believe so. So we know that God can still

move because God does not look at just the external expression,

but the inner posture. But sometimes if we are not careful,

we seem to gravitate towards certain preferences and that will

affect our posture in worship. I'm coming to a close now. C. S.

Lewis has this saying, in the process of being worship,

God communicates his presence to men. So if you're saying

I want God to be in my midst worship, that

would be what I would like to share. And as

a conclusion just not mentioned this, right, there is power

in praise. Every time you praise and worship God, something

has to happen if you're doing it genuinely, if you're

worshiping and praising God in a proper posture, something has

to happen when it cannot remain the same. You know

this from X chapter sixteen when Paul and Silas were

in prison. What did they do? They praise God right,

and what happened? There was an earthquake and does flung open?

Things change and things happened, and he did not stop there.

And I appreach about this before the jailer and the

family came to know the Lord. Things happen when we

praise and worship God. It has to happen when you

genuinely praise and worship God for ourselves. We will never

leave the place the same. And I want to declare

this over XBU as well. When you have praise and

worship God properly here with the right posture, and only

you and know, nobody else will know. Right, nobody else

will know. You cannot leave this place the same way

you came in. You came in with anxiety, You came

in with a burden. When you have praise and worship God,

you have to leave this place without anxiety, but with peace.

You have to live this place with your burdens lifted.

That is how you can cage whether you have actually

worshiped God. And we also have to be very careful

as a caveat when you worship God. Are you expecting

something from God? Or are you worshiping God because He

deserves to be worshiped. It's two different postures. Are you

worshiping God because he's like a genie in the bottle?

Oh God, if I worship you properly, I sing very loud,

you will do this for me because Christians often do

that myself. If I'm not careful, I can do that.

It works. It becomes a trade. We've God worship God

because he deserves to be worshiped. I want to share

another testimony with all of us. You know, we have

prayer services and we always do it at John and

Gent's place once every two weeks. Many times you would think,

oh Bass Stephen Bama, I've got excited to go for

prayer service. When confirm excited, can be very honest to

confess with you. There days I really don't feel like it.

You guys work one day. I also work work full daily.

I also have to brave one hour jam to go.

And if I can be honest with you, do I

feel like it all the time? No, most of the

time I don't want to go, and I always pray.

I say, God, you give me the strength to go,

but I can. I can confirm this testimony with guys.

Every single time I went for prayer service, even though

I went tired, I leave refreshed. Even though I came

with a posture of I don't really want to do this,

but God, I will obey, I'll do it. I'll do

it anyways, I always leave refreshed. Ask any of those

who have been attending our prayer services. I'm very confident

in this testimony because they also feel the same way.

Josiah shared the same Also, just the two prayer service

services go same thing. He said, I really don't feel

like it, but I'm glad I came. I feel so refreshed.

When we praise and worship God truly in spirit and

in truth, we will be transformed. Another funny illustration for you.

I love stories, so that's why I share a lot.

There's this story about this one boy. Right after attend

church one Sunday morning, he went home. He knelt before God,

this little boy and say, God, we had such a

good time at church today, if only you were there.

So when we come to church to worship God, how

we truly worshiping? When we come to church to praise God?

What is our posture? Because when we praise right, the

Word of God says, God inhabits the praises of his people.

He does not go against his way. So as a church,

I want to say this and encourage us. That's why

God says, put the house into order as a church corporately, guys,

if all of us can praise right, there will be

no clocks to the drain of blessings and power. I

will declare one day we will see signs and wonders,

or people healed on the spot, spirits that are not

of God leaving right here as we praise. Can we

envision that? I see that? But for that to happen,

we've got to work together. Church. It's not past the

Stephen's job, but as a church that means we are

one community and we do it together. When we do

it corporately, we do it right. We praise God, right,

worship God? Right man, What wouldn't God do for us?

Because He will be well pleased? Last few hard checks

and then we're closing prayer. If you ever felt that

God is not in our worship services? Right here, we

got to ask ourselves these questions. Have we been honoring

to God? I'm talking about things that will stop us

from experiencing God? There first question? Have we been honoring

to The second question? Have we been harboring un forgiveness?

Because scripture says before you offer a sacrifice to the temple,

if you have any offense with someone, you better go

and get it sorted out before you come and offer

your sacrifice. Are we coming to God's presence with unforgiveness?

No wonder, there's no power. Do we give God our

best in all that we do? If we say worship

is obedience, then God says, God always has always taught

us to your best for his glory. Whatever you do,

do it to the glory of God, for the glory

of gol. Have we been giving God our best in

all that we do? Do we give God our best

when we serve in church? When we say I'm here

to serve God. Have we truly given our best. Do

we come to church because we feel obligated or you

come because you honestly want to worship God. Do you

feel that taking care of the church is only the

pastest job? I thank God that the readership doesn't feel

that way. Our leaders here are always very supportive and

always to all the ground work hard. But can you

imagine if all of us so together, what a beautiful

picture that will be. I talk about the church setting

the context of the church, But when we talk about

praising God right and worshiping God right, giving God our

best in obedience to him, it does not just stay

in the church. You know, worshiping and praising God shouldn't

be limited to just within the confines of the church.

We are created to go out to praise God outside.

Also read the Book of Acts. When the Holy Spirit

came upon the disciples. What happened? They went out speaking

in tongues languages of other tribes, praising the works of God.

Praise and worship shouldn't be confined within the walls of

the church. Friends, praise and worship should be done all day,

every day, and how you leave your life the moment

you wake up God, Thank you for breath. You're in

a job you don't like. God, Thank you, I still

have a job. You're dealing with difficult family members, God,

thank you, I still have them. When we come before

God with thanksgiving and praise in the right posture, you'll

start seeing your life transform. I guarantee you this because

I've seen it happen in my own life as well.

For God to be with us, we've got to praise

and worship Him in every way, every area, not just

in church, but within our families. How we leave our life,

how we are testimony. It's always called me, last time

you go to church, look very good. Amen. Amen, holyly

you come Homer. The words that come out your mother

is the opposite. It's true. When I was a teen,

I was like then I heard I feel the red story.

God help me God. But God does not desire for

us to just be praising a worship in Him in song,

in church, on me, in our families. How can we

live a lifestyle worship in our work, in our finances?

How do we give God our best and trusted Because

the Lord is good, He will not short change you.

When you give God your all, you never short change you. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit AKS Church do RG.

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that this week is going to be a good week

ahead for you. God bless m