Sunday, November 17, 2019 - Worship: Expressing Love to God
Pastor Roger C. Marcos
November 17, 2019
Worship is an act of love. It is a demonstration of love. We serve God and we worship God each Sunday when we gather together to sing his praises and listen to his word, but there is so much more to worship than that. WORSHIP IS A JOY, NOT A TASK.
Tell God that You Love Him!
In Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” NIV Worship Is One way to Express our Love to God.
What do we mean by expressing our love in worship?
Worship is anything you do for the purpose and exaltation of something/someone other than yourself.
Worship is our sole primary purpose - when God said let us make man in our own image he was seeking relationship, fellowship and communion with us. That means that our priority - our primary and sole purpose is to worship him. He is the author but also the recipient of worship.
This is why we ask the Holy Spirit to intercede for us and teach us how to pray. The Holy Spirit being God understands Himself and His desire for us to worship God in Trinity and thus is able to do those things because He is also a recipient of our worship.
To WORSHIP In SPIRIT means to Worship In Love.
The Father Seeks Worshippers... and His Worshippers Worship Him In Spirit and in Truth. John 4:23-24
The word worship itself speaks of giving worth, time, honor, and glory to something. It came from old English worth-ship - which means the ascribing of worth.
Our worship should be powered by truth and permeated with emotion.
So is the worship you bring God each week in spirit and truth? Do you worship what is true about Him? Is your worship emotive and sincere? If one of these factors is missing, how you’re going about what you consider to be worship has hijacked what Jesus has defined as true worship. Until we worship in spirit and truth we may be a lot of different things, but we’re not true worshippers.
While the word emotive is similar to the word emotional, it's important to note that the two aren't interchangeable. Emotive is used with regard to something that makes you have intense feelings rather than just having intense feelings. For example, an emotive conversation will result in getting people's emotions riled up, while an emotional conversation is one in which people go into it with a lot of intense feelings already.
Emotive: relating to the emotions; appealing to or expressing emotion. making people have strong feelings
Deut. 6:5/Mt 22:37 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
The degree to which you love something - is the degree to which you will ascribe worth to it. Mt 6:24 - No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Paul declared that “all things work together for good” only for “those who love God . . . who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
To WORSHIP IN LOVE MEANS TO WORSHIP IN TRUTH.
True worship is a heartfelt expression of love, adoration, admiration, fascination, wonder, and celebration. It’s something that happens in your heart and soul when you begin to praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done.
You can’t love what you don’t understand/know:
How can you love something if you don’t know it? e.g. Sushi/ Fondue/Pilau for that matter - or some other foreign dish - if someone asks you if you love Sushi and you have never tasted it - u can’t go around saying Oh you know I love Sushi - the way it sounds, how gisty it is, the restaurants that serve it look so nice - HAVE YOU TASTED IT?
Ps 34:8 Taste and See that the Lord is Good!
You can’t know God as a comforter unless you have been in deep sorrow, you can’t know God as a provider unless you have been in lack, and you can’t know God as a lover a friend unless you have been lonely!!! How can you then say in your worship of Him you have been this. when you don’t know it?
Illustration: Story of the 5 blind men touching the elephant - they tried to explain it and one said oh it is like a spear - tusk, it is like a wall - the body, it is like a snake - the trunk, it is like a tree - the leg, it is like a - whatever .
But in actuality none of them could correctly describe it because they couldn’t see it.
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God. 1 Cor. 8:1-3
The beautiful thing about knowing God is that He also gets to know you and you begin a relationship that is unique to the two of you.
Once you love the Lord. then His purpose becomes your purpose.
Celebrate His Goodness. I rejoiced with those who said to me, LET US GO TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. Ps. 122:1
KEY WORD TO REMEMBER: “JOY IN WORSHIP” - when Sunday comes did you realize sometimes you feel sick? Sometimes we have two feeling- meaning two choices- go to church or stay home. Which is easier to follow?
My Question:
Why Would God Require His People to Worship Him? Because “WORSHIP” does not just BENEFIT GOD- it also benefits those who worship Him. It keeps our lives in order. It helps us to remember all that God done for us and is a way of thanking Him.
Always remember when worship we throw off the pressing demands of Life to simply ENJOY GOD’S PRESENCE.
Conclusion:
Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” NIV
- We Are Created In God’s Image to Worship Him.
- He died for Our Sins: so that we can worship Him the best we can.
Remember Worship is a way to express our Love through so. TRUE WORSHIP BRINGS LASTING JOY.
THOSE WHO BAPTIZED: If you never been transfer Your Membership- Come.
THOSE WHO NEVER BEEN BAPTIZED: Today Is the Day of Salvation- COME.