What Kind Of Worship Does God Want?| Colin DCruz

WHAT KIND OF WORSHIP DOES GOD WANT?

This message was preached by Colin DCruz at Word of Grace Church on October 14th, 2018. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.

When we are looking for a job we look at advertisements, look at the jobs advertised, and see what fits my profile. We want to prepare for the job. Some companies are ranked at the world’s best employers.  Would you not like to work for them?

What does that have to do with our word this morning? God is also looking for people. He has a wanted poster like those old Western movies – “Wanted”. The matrimonial column has a “wanted” list.

What kind of wanted poster would God put up? Does he need anything?

Is there anything that God needs?

What do you give a person who has everything?

What kind of wanted posts would God put up?

The answer is in John chapter 4:23

John 4:23 – Yet, a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks

God is seeking worshipers who will worship him in Spirit and in truth. What does this mean? It means he is looking for a certain kind of man or woman. People who will worship in Spirit and in Truth.

2 Chr 16:9 – For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

God is seeking people whose hearts are fully committed to him from the 5-6 billion people on this earth.

How do we become like this?

What kind of worship does the Father deserve?

All of us are different in personalities, likes, and dislikes. But when it comes to worship, we need to find out what God desires but not what we like or dislike.

At our jobs, we are required to do what the job requires of us.

What does the Bible say about worship?

When Jesus was asked, what the greatest commandment was, he said,

Mark 12:30 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength

What does heaven look like?

Rev 4:6-8 - ……. Day and night they never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come”

How do you think we will worship God when we go to heaven?

When John encountered Jesus and saw him in glory, he fell at the feet of Jesus as though dead.

Rev 1:17 – When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

Jesus our Lord is worthy of worship and heaven is full of worship.

Mat 15:8-9 – “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules”

1.    We are called to worship him with our hearts. He wants our devotion, love, and emotion and be engaged.

2.    He wants our mind to be engaged. Our minds can be distracted. We need to engage our mind

3.    Clapping, singing, dancing, bowing, kneeling requires for us to do something in action and this needs energy

2 Sam 6:4-5 – Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums, and cymbals.

The ark of the Lord was being brought with great might and rejoicing. We are looking at this account in scripture so we know what true worship looks like. I doubt they stood with their hands folded. There was a great celebration.

In the middle of this, Uzzah touched the ark because the oxen stumbled. God struck him down and he died.

What does this tell us?

We cannot worship God on our terms. We need to follow God’s instructions.

God said do not touch the ark. We cannot say do not like to dance, lift my hands or clap. What does God require?

Throughout the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, there are detailed instructions on how to build the temple, how God needs to worship. This is the Old Testament. However, the principle is we need to worship God how he requires it and not on our terms.

2 Sam 6:11 – The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.

David was afraid to take the ark with him. So he took it to Obed-Edom and let it stay in their house for three months. God blessed the entire household of Obed-Edom. The ark represents the presence of God and where God’s presence is, his blessings will be.

Today, God’s presence is not restricted to geography or an object. His presence is in our hearts.

So, David brought the ark to Jerusalem.

Make time to worship God daily and spend time with God.

David brought the ark of God to Jerusalem. He made a sacrifice every six steps. Imagine that! It cost him.

2 Sam 6:14-15 – Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

While bringing the ark of God, David danced with all his might. It was not casual. There was great rejoicing.

Often we wonder what people would think of us if we dance while worshipping the Lord.

2 Sam 6:16 – As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Michal, daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

There are people who might think of us the same way, but it does not matter.

David came into the city and sacrificed bulls etc.

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal said that how the king of Israel like any other vulgar fellow could go around half-naked in the presence of slave girls

To this David’s reply was -  2 Sam 6:21-22 – “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

So, let us not judge anyone

1 Cor 6:20 – You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

Rom 12:1-2 – Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.

In the Old Testament, it was dead sacrifices, but in the New Testament, it is living sacrifices – holy and pleasing to God.

Heaven is full of worship. God is looking for worshippers in Spirit and in truth. The Psalms are full of different expressions of worship.

The Father is looking for worshippers who will worship in Spirit and in truth.

  Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.