The Heart of Worship Part II

The Heart of Worship
    Part II
             
 We come back to the heart of worship this week bringing Jesus more than a song. The king of kings is the only one that knows our hearts. While everyone else see’s us what’s on the surface, only our God knows our hearts true intentions and he desires to be close to us. During service this Sunday July 6th, 2025, just before being invited to take communion Pastor Mike references

1 John 1:3. That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you,
that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Witnessing is sharing what you’ve seen and heard. Testifying your life experiences and the transformation God has done within you helps others to relate, as well as understand the possibilities of what God has for them. This brings those who are in darkness, to the light. Our God is after our heart, relationship with us, and for us to have fellowship with each other. Taking communion is an intimate way of coming close to Jesus.

John 6:53 So, Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.”

The bread represents the body, juice represents the blood. This scripture is not meant to be literal; Jesus is saying we need to be close to him to have eternal life. Taking communion is a reminder of the testimony of his sacrifice.

As we continue with our series on The Heart of Worship Pastor Mike reminds us of the definition of the term “Worship”. Worship is defined as the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. It’s in the heart of man to worship something. God’s desire is for us to worship him. He is a jealous God and wants our entire heart. The saying goes “He is Lord of all, or not Lord at all”.

Pastor Mike gives us the analogy that when God wants all of you it’s like a marriage. Let say there was a deal where you could choose to marry that man or woman of your dreams and they would be faithful to you 364 days of the year, but the catch is that on the 365th day they got to do whatever they wanted with whoever they wanted. Would you take that deal? Most would say “No way!” because we want it all. That is what God wants. He wants it all.

2 Chronicles 16:9
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.”

Our God is looking for someone with loyal and steadfast heart. When we worship supernatural things take place. There are things we can see and others we cannot see. Praise and worship are not just singing a song, hence the verse in the song The Heart of Worship “ill sing you more than a song.” Freedom is the first thing that happens when we praise. Reflecting upon the story of Paul and Silas that we learned about last week; these men were imprisoned and subjected to harsh, unfair punishment and destitute living conditions. They chose to put their focus on God rather than their circumstances. God’s grace provided was not only their freedom, but he also granted freedom to those surrounding them.

When We Praise and Worship: What happens?

#1 Direction: We get direction from God. The Holy Spirit shows us what we are supposed to do.
Acts 13:1-2
Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who has been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said. “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
All these men and woman of God were looking for direction. They sought the Lord and fasted in desperation for spiritual awakening that God would give them their assignments. In our day to day, we get so overwhelmed with all the tasks at hand. Our Lord simply wants us to worship him while he shows us what to do next. He knows the beginning to the end. As believers we long for our purpose. He promises that if we just worship him, he will make it clear to us.

#2 A Key: Worship is a key for people coming to Jesus. Our praise and worship unlock other people and brings them before the presence of God.
Exodus 28:29
“So, Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Isreal on the breastplate of judgement over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the LORD continually.”
Aaron wore a breast plate containing 12 different precious stones. He wore that over his heart. Each one of those stones contained the name of a tribe of Isreal. He went into the presence of God wearing these stones as a representation of these people over his heart. This went as up “as memorial before the Lord continually”, meaning Aaron came to God on behalf of the other tribes.

#3 Causes God to show up: Practicing endurance through our trials is us preparing for the day we are in heaven when we will praise him forever. Once in heaven we will no longer have grief. Pastor Mike emphasized that our praise is a channel for God to move in our tough situations. God is attracted to desperate, broken people. This gives us a chance to show God we cannot do this in our own strength. He takes our focus and puts that on him while he changes our circumstances.

#4 Defeats: The enemy coming against us is stopped.
2 Chronicles 20:1-30
Have you ever noticed that “when it rains it pours”? These last scriptures are a representation of how when one thing goes wrong, a wave of troubles seems to follow. It almost feels like a conspiracy. That is because it is a conspiracy. A planned attack from the enemy who has had thousands of years of practice. A few obstacles feel manageable, but when it’s a multitude of obstacles the weight becomes too heavy to carry alone. All these people came to battle against Jehoshaphat all at once.
The name Jehoshaphat means Jehovah has judged.

• How this pertains to us is when these enemies come against us, God has already judged them, and it’s up to us to enforce the judgment by calling on our God to fight for us because it’s already been decreed. The battle is not ours, its Gods. We still must face our fears for God to help us conquer them. When we grab a hold of the truth that with him, we can face all challenges that is putting our trust in the Lord for him to show up.

During this time in history the location, Hazazon is the land where the enemy was coming from. Hazazon means a place of pruning. The enemies showed up from a place of pruning. The nations that were coming against Jehoshaphat were essentially an orchestrated band of evil coming against God’s people. Now the bright side of this is that God can use our enemies to help bring forth his purpose for us. Why does God prune us? He prunes us so that we can bear more fruit. The enemy is coming with the intent to destroy us. Our God uses darkness and turns it to light.

Sometimes God puts difficult people in our lives to prune us. This can even be someone as close as a relative. When God wants to grant you patience he will test your patience first. God can use people that are hard to get along with. For those of us that are quick to anger, practicing patience with a loved one is the perfect time for the Lord to bless us. Changing the way, you respond to these difficult people can be a blessing. Instead of reacting and following our own thoughts, take those thoughts captive. If we can turn to pouring out our hearts to God through praising him or even in quiet prayer that refocuses our minds on God. This is an act of trusting in the Lord. Our reward is he calms us and gives us the direction we need to respond with a level head.

Jehoshaphat decided to seek God rather than come up with his own plans or try to flee. Declaring what God has promised back to him is the key to success. Its not God that needs the reminder, its us that need the reminder that we stand on firm ground in confidence that we can do all things through his strength. He’s not looking for people who know what to do, he is looking for us to listen and seek him. As soon as they began to praise the ambush against the enemy happened. Then the enemies that had joined forces to come after Jehoshaphat turned on each other. As the saying goes “There is no honor amongst thieves”.

Berachah means blessings. In the Valley of Berachah where they had come to with so much fear ended up being the place of blessings where they were able to collect so much gold and silver it took them 3 days to collect all of it. Just like Jehoshaphat, our blessings are found in the place where we must confront and stand against our fear. Typically, we want to avoid our fears. If we do that, we miss out on the blessings God has for us from the victory.
Lastly, when we praise and worship that defeats the enemy that is within us. This pertains to our fleshly desires. This is an even stronger enemy that is within us, than the one coming against us.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, We all have weapons. They are not lead, bombs, and airplanes, but they are mighty. These weapons are the praise, worship, and decrees that we make in faith. There is so much that goes on inside of our heads. The battle going on inside of us is an intense battle. The thing you don’t want to do, you end up doing. The lie you don’t want to believe you end up believing. The thing you want to be free from, you are addicted to. We become convinced that we are stuck over time, like an elephant trained in the circus. Pastor Mike compares these restrictions we put on ourselves to the way they train elephants from adolescence in the circus. They chain these elephants so they cannot move. Over time they make the chain shorter. By the time the elephant has reached maturity all it takes is a shoelace to keep the elephant from moving away from the distance it’s been trained to be bound to. It thinks its locked in and cannot escape. Just like these strongholds in our minds.

We must realize we have been given mighty weapons for pulling down strong holds. Strong holds are the wrong thought patterns we’ve gotten so used to. You can’t simply council someone out of strongholds, its supernatural.