A Seeking Heart, Rediscovering True Worship

My prayer for this weekend is very simple. I want you to experience what I
experienced at last year’s conference. No, I’m not praying that the electricity will
go out like it did last year, but that you will find a time to get alone with God.

If I did some research, I could tell you what the theme of last year’s retreat was. I
remember that it was all very good and meaningful, but what stayed with me the
most is how God was present here. I had no huge spiritual awakening, but
somewhere during the weekend, I felt the presence of God in a new way. As
most people were up worrying about how they were going to get their coffee or
dry their hair with no electricity, I had found one of the many alcoves (the
screened in porches on each floor of the hotel) and was meeting with God.

There was silence, no hum of air conditioner units, or the normal sounds of 50
women preparing for the day. It was quiet except for the music of God’s world
speaking to me. The river flowing, a little aggressively that morning after the
storm, and the birds singing were the only sounds, and I met with God, I rested in
His presence.

That’s what these weekends are about, and have been for 22 years…to give
women an opportunity to lean back against the Father and just rest. I encourage
you to seek Him out this weekend. I know that you are probably here with a
group of sisters that you enjoy spending time with (and you’ll have plenty of time
to do that) but seek times where it’s just you and God and allow Him to speak to
you or to simply allow you into His presence. Sisters, if you see one of your group
needing to have those moments with God….allow her to have them.
I’m going to call those some NOW moments and I’ll explain that in just a little bit.

Our focal passage for this weekend i

Key Passage: John 4:23

But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him.

I’ve put emphasis on the word NOW in this verse. I’m sure you are familiar with
the story of Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-42).
He is traveling through Samaria and stops at Jacob’s well to rest…He’s worn out
(v6).

I wonder how many of us could relate. How many of you could say tonight that
you are just worn out from the daily-ness of life?

A woman comes to the well to draw water, it’s an odd time for doing this and she
is alone. Most women come early in the morning as a group, but she was not
welcome in that group. Jesus asks for a drink of water and that begins a
discussion that changed her life. Almost under His breath (in my imagination)
Jesus said in verse 10…oh, if you only knew. She tells Him what she knows about
her lineage, the line of Jacob, how the Jews don’t agree with their place of
worship, that they required them to come to Jerusalem to worship. Jesus begins
to explain to her that she doesn’t have to “go” anywhere to worship God….no set
time for worship or place…the time has come and is now here…right here , right
now…that you can worship God in spirit and in truth.

She tells Him what she knows about the Messiah. And Jesus speaks the truth to
her. I AM He….the One….I’m here right now…worship Me now.
He says the same thing to all of us this weekend. He is here
NOW…tonight…ready to be worshiped.

Are you ready to worship Him in spirit and in truth…right NOW?

I’ve used NOW as an acrostic to outline this weekend. We are going to rediscover
or maybe even discover for the first time what true worship is. First…it’s NOW.
N
O
W

N – need

O – obstacles

W – ways

Each letter is going to represent my focus for this weekend. Tonight we’ll talk
Need
O
W
about N- Need , tomorrow we’ll focus on O- Obstacles

Need Need
Obstacles Obstacles
W Ways
and W-Ways.

Need – We have some basic needs that are “built” into every one of us. We each
need to be loved and to love. We need to be feed (spiritually and physically). We
need to have a purpose, a focus for our lives.

We Need to:
•Worship

We need to worship.
God intended to fill every one of those needs and many more. It was His design
to have a relationship with us where each of these needs were met…by Him. But
from the beginning, we sought fulfillment in other places. And the same was true
with worship.

What is worship? That is our focus this weekend.

Worship:
“reverence offered to a
divine being or
supernatural power or an
act of expressing such
reverence”
(Webster’s Dicitionary)

Webster’s Dictionary defines worship as “reverence offered to a divine being or

supernatural power or an act of expressing such reverence.”

“True worship flows from

the heart in recognition of
and response to the
magnificence of Christ and
because of an understanding
of the grace found solely in
the gospel.”
– Thom Rainer

I like Thom Rainer’s definition (the president LifeWay Christian Resources): “True
worship flows from the heart in recognition of and response to the magnificence
of Christ and because of an understanding of the grace found solely in the
gospel.” (taken from Seven Words of Worship, Mike Harland & Stan Moser) In
other words, it is a response to God that flows from our heart in recognition of all
that He has done, is doing and what He did through His Son, Jesus Christ.

We worship what we believe deserves our honor, our reverence…because of its

or their power, prestige, accomplishments, fame & glory.

If I asked you who you worship, I believe that most of you say “God”. Yet we, and
when I say we I mean I, give our attention and reverence to so many other things
and people. I recently heard Ed Stetzer, an author & speaker on theology,
missional, church planting, church revitalization, and church innovation for
LifeWay, say that he would like to hear people get as excited about God’s plan as
they have Obama’s health plan. Where do we put our attention and our focus?
Because that is where we put our worship.

It’s very easy to put our worship on the servants of God. In a heartbeat I could be

worshiping Beth Moore. I so admire all that she has

accomplished for the glory of God. She is a great speaker and teacher. And she
just dresses so cute! Sometimes I find myself going to her to see what God says
instead of going to God. I read her words before I read His. See how easy it is to
give someone else our worship?

We were made to worship and we will worship.

It is up to us who or what we worship.

Turn to Exodus 32, again another Sunday School story you are probably very
familiar with, or if you have ever watched Charlton Heston in The Ten

Commandments. you know the story of how the

children of Israel were delivered from slavery and the tyranny of the Pharaoh of
Egypt by God. All the miracles that God performed to show His power and free
His people, all the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, provision of food and
water….and yet because their leader, Moses was absent from them for a few
days….they wanted a god that they could see to worship.
Exodus 32:1…When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the
mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god
who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the
land of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!”

They were following a man…not God.

Verse 6 says…Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and
presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, then got

up to revel.

Sounds like some worshiping was going on…what do you think?

Sometimes we lose focus of who we are to worship, we forget quickly what God
has done for us, and we don’t seek Him. When that happens…we worship other
things or people.

Romans 1:25 says…They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and
served something created instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Romans 1:25
They exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped
and served something created
instead of the Creator, who is
blessed forever

The truth of God…we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. Don’t exchange
His truth for lies.

Worship in spirit is fairly simple since we understand that God is a spirit, He is not
physically with us today like He was in the New Testament times, through Jesus
Christ. I think most of us understand that He now dwells within us through the
Holy Spirit. If that is an issue that you don’t understand, please get with me later
and we’ll discuss that in more detail. For tonight, I’m going to assume that you
understand God is a spiritual form.

The truth of God is where I want us to focus for the rest of tonight.

How do I know that I am worshiping God in truth?

We Need to:
•Worship
• Know God

First, I need to know God.

I can’t worship someone that I don’t know…right? I feel pretty confident in

saying that if I asked each of you if you know God…you would probably say yes.

But my question is not if you know Him….but how well do you know God?

Jesus asked His disciples a similar question.

Matthew 16:13-16…..”But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

And while they answered Him, they still at that point did not fully understand the
truth about Him.

Follow with me as I use a visual example for three levels of knowing God. This is
in no way theological example. I don’t think you will find this in any teachings
other than one of my classes. But bear with me.

I know how to play the piano. How many of you can say the same thing?
I started taking lessons in the 2nd grade and through most of my school years.
Even took a theory class in college. I started playing for churches while I was in
high school. In my way of thinking, there are three levels to being a pianist.

Beginners
Intermediate
Advanced

Beginners

Intermediate

Advanced

We have two pianos in our home. My son, Adam, knows that they are in the
house. He knows how they work, what they sound like and at one time may have
sat down and banged on them. If he were to decide he wanted to learn to play
the piano, he would be a beginner. He would have to start with the basic 3-note

songs, using only one hand.

Like I said, I’ve been playing for a long time. If you asked me to, I could go over
there to the piano and play, with confidence, at least 3 songs by heart. 1) Chop
Sticks, 2) the song from the movie “Big” that Tom Hanks played on the floor,
Heart & Soul and the accompaniment to it. 3) And my mother is really proud of
this, I can play The Tennessee Waltz…. using only the black keys.

But for the life of me, I can’t play Just As I Am without the music in front of me.
I’ve played that song as many times as you’ve sang it, but more, because I played
it while your heads were bowed and your eyes were closed. I can’t tell you the
timing of a song, or what key it is in. I don’t know how to transpose and the only
scales I know about are on a fish or make you cry when you step on them.

I am a very basic piano player. I can play well and I feel comfortable playing at
churches and have even played at weddings. But I have to have the music in front
of me and I don’t add all those extra keys that I’ve seen others do. I think I would

probably be classified at the intermediate level.

But there are some pianists out there that are advanced. They don’t need the
music before them, they feel it on the keys. They can use every one of the 88
keys of the piano and make it sound good. They KNOW how to play the piano.

So, putting your knowledge of God in perspective to these levels of knowledge in

playing the piano….how well do you know God? I’m pretty sure, like in my piano
skills, I’m comfortable in the intermediate level…but I want to be advanced, and

it’s not outside my grasp. All it takes it pushing myself

outside my comfort zone and doing some in-depth Bible study (on my own) and
intense prayer…not relying on anyone else to tell me about God, but letting God
tell me about Himself through His Word.

Oddly enough, my comfort zone on the piano is about the same size as the space I
take up on the pew….about 24 inches. Could there be a lesson there?!
So back to worshiping God in truth…How do I do that? I do better seeing how
others have done it in the past. Going to God’s Word to learn about God, I find a
perfect example…David.

Acts 13:22….”I have found David…a man after My heart…” (referring to 1 Sam.
13:14)

I think David knew how to worship God because He knew God. He worshiped
through word, deed, song, & dance. I’m thinking if he was alive today, he would
be like Toby Mac, don’t you? His worship had some movement to it. But he
didn’t always worship God in truth.

2 Samuel 6:1-13 tells how David prepares to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to

Jerusalem after it was taken during a battle when Saul was king.
David has a moment of peace during his reign and he remembers that the Ark is
not where it is suppose to be. He wanted to honor…worship God by bringing it
back to Jerusalem.

The Ark of the Covenant was a major article of the Tabernacle. God had given
specific instructions of how it was to be made and handled. It held
remembrances of how God had led the Israelites and cared for them (the staff of
Moses, manna, pieces of the tablets of the commandments). It was where God
met with His prophets, who in turn spoke to the people.

David assembled 30,000 choice men to go and get the Ark. Verse 3 tells how they
transported the Ark…on a new cart. David and the whole house of Israel are
celebrating with all kinds of music before the Lord. What a great day of
celebration and worship they were having.

2 Samuel 6:3….They set the ark of God on a new cart and transported it….v.
5…David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all
kinds of…instruments..

But a death always brings a stop to any party.

One of the men leading the cart; reacted naturally to the Ark shifting on the cart
after the oxen stumbled, reached to steady it. We’ve all done that….reached to
catch something that is about to fall. Only, the consequence of Uzza’s action was
very serious.

2 Samuel 6:7…God struck him dead on the spot for his irreverence…

David became angry with God. Wouldn’t you? Here he was worshiping God,
doing something that should please God and God kills someone right in the
middle of his worship. Then David got afraid of God and refused to bring the Ark
into the Tabernacle.

He left the presence of God on the side of the road….in a nearby home….and he
went home….for three months.

Have you ever been angry at God…couldn’t understand why God allowed
something to happen or did something that seemed to hurt you….even when you
felt you were in the middle of His will…serving Him? Did you leave His presence?
Did your Bible become dusty because you refused to pick it up?

Was your pew empty at church…did you stop praying?

Worship was the last thing from your mind.

David had to face a truth about God.

God gave specific details of how the Ark was to be transported….by poles on the
shoulders of the priest…no hand was to touch it (Exodus 25:10-22). I’m not sure
why David overlooked this when he was planning to bring the Ark home. Maybe
the journey was long and the cart seemed easiest, quickest way to get it to
Jerusalem. But it was not the truth of how God had instructed them.

1 Chronicles 13-15 gives a detailed description of what David did after he left the
Ark. As with most of David’s reign, he was still at war during those three months.
He continued to seek God’s direction on his campaigns. And God continued to
bless him. David eventually returns to Jerusalem and begins to build his
house…and maybe the guilt over what he had done with the Ark or jealousy for
the blessing the people who had the Ark were receiving….something caused David
to want to bring it to Jerusalem…this time, following God’s truth on how to
transport the Ark.

They bring the Ark into Jerusalem and David worships God in truth, this time. Still
using the music and the dance and all of Israel…in the proper manner they line up
with David at the head of the crowd. He lays aside his royal robes and releases
himself to worship God in a new way.

1 Sam. 6:14….David was dancing with all his might before the Lord…

1 Chronicles 15:25 (NKJV)….with joy

David was now worshiping God in truth.

What truth do you need God to show you about Himself so that you can worship
Him right now? It could be something that you didn’t really realize was a lie.
Have you left God’s presence because you couldn’t handle the truth? Are you
ready to know Him in a new way, to worship Him unrestrained by the lies you’ve
believed about Him.

I’d like to close this session by opening up the altar. Come now and seek Him.

Jeremiah 29:13…You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all

your heart.
The Message says it this way….When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else,
I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.

Come Now and find Him.

Closing Prayer

I challenge you to seek some Now moments this weekend.