Issues of the Heart #4 Heart of Worship

Issues of the Heart ~ Part 4
A Heart of Worship

By Pastor Gary Wayne

Text: Matthew 15:7-9, Proverbs 4:23

In the 1990s Matt Redman was a worship leader for his church in England. The band was on the cutting edge of creating new songs, and influencing churches worldwide. But something was off. The pastor noticed a trend happening – worship time was more about good music and talent. The congregation had moved from being worshipers to consumers. The pastor asked the church: “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?”
The next Sunday the pastor told the band not to do anything. They were to stand down with no organized music or organized worship.

The way Matt tells the story, for a few weeks, the music time was more like embarrassing silence. But bit by bit, there would be spontaneous praise and singing, and heartfelt prayers offered as worship. And that grew. When the pastor started seeing worship re-instated in their church time, he let the musicians and worship leaders go back up front –the congregation had came into a true worship time.
Matt in the privacy of his home sat down and wrote the song “The Heart of Worship.”

How can going to church on Sunday move from being about honoring and worshiping God, to being about my comfort zone? A consumer mentality.
The text Jesus was quoting from in Isa 29:13 "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, …”

What did Jesus say to the church at Ephesus in Rev.2:4 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

They were still doing church – and doing it really good.
But worship is a heart thing, and once we understand how it works, we operate well in our ruts, formulas, and methods, not following His heart that runs on intimacy.
Dick Iverson, founder of Bible Temple (now City Bible Church in Portland),
as a young minister started by helping sick and crippled people onto the stage for healing (I think for Aimee Semple McPherson - maybe Kathryn Kuhlman) – at first, the wonder and awe of it all, after a while it turned into herding people.

Even the dynamic and marvelous can turn into ordinary when we stop focusing on God.

God is after my heart – my heart with Him as the center, not His toys, or His blessings, “HIM!”

Mat.5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart they will see God.”
But our heart can be cluttered with SOOOOOO MANY things and still love God.

Rom.10:10 “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Faith comes from the heart, not the mind.
The heart is that place where genuine worship comes from – the mind is where a form of worship originates.

On the outside it can look the same, but like our text says, “… their heart is far from Me. In vain they worship Me…”

Everything about our life is connected to my heart condition.
So if this is true, what will be the primary target of the evil one?
If the enemy wants to hurt my life, he will go after my heart as well.

Mat:13:34 “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
A person can be very disciplined in how they talk and speak at church.
But under pressure, what is in my heart will end up coming out of my mouth.
Under pressure, what is inside comes outside.

Todd White - When you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice.
When you squeeze a Christian, what do you get? It depends on what my heart worships. If I truly worship God, under pressure, you don’t get Gary.

God is not narcissistic. He doesn't need my praise he doesn't need to be built up by my words. When I worship God it's changes me. It does something to my heart that God responds to.

When the structure of my heart is not in order, and God isn't the first thing that I worship, it sends out signals to the demonic saying you can come play in this house.

How I treat my family is an expression of My worship to God.
How I treat those that I'm in conflict with, or how I treat people I don't like is a reflection of My worship to God.

Prayer: God we don’t want to be like the people Isaiah talked about.
We pray Eze 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Ps 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Jer 24:7 “Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”