How to Worship

[0:00] But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.

[0:18] ! We need a refreshing and a refilling from time to time to be filled with that abundance of who God is. In Colossians 3.16 it says, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

[0:39] There's that fullness there, that the Word of God should fill us, our minds, our hearts, our thoughts. Spiritual life is what it's talking about. Worship starts from that spiritual life. It starts from that spiritual mindset that He wants us to have.

[0:54] Not an earthly mindset or a worldly mindset, but a spiritual mindset. And the word worship is, in the English, it's a word that's made from worth-ship.

[1:06] Worth-ship. So something that's worthy, that's worth something, and ship. Worship. And so, when we worship, we're ascribing worth.

[1:17] We're ascribing worth. We're ascribing value to God. We're saying that our Lord is worthy. That our Lord is worth something. That He is valuable. And when we worship, we're saying that we count Him valuable.

[1:30] We trust Him. We love Him. We honour Him. We exalt Him. We magnify Him. We make Him that focus of everything. And we want Him to be bigger.

[1:42] We want Him to increase and for us to decrease. We want Him to increase.

[2:15] We want Him to increase. extravagant in our worship.

[2:47] And here was Mary, Lazarus' sister. There was a fullness there. There was a richness there. The house was filled with the fragrance of that ointment as she poured it out upon him.

[2:59] As there was an outpouring, as there was an anointing, there was a filling of the house, of the place where they were with the fragrance of that ointment. With that costly worship. There was worship.

[3:11] She valued the Saviour. She valued the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what worship really is, isn't it? It's saying that we love and honour and esteem him and regard him.

[3:23] That our worship is directing our attention to the Saviour. He is the one that is the focal point. A preacher said this. He said, entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. When we save, the joy of our salvation is not dependent on the atmosphere or the way things are geared or composed. We don't want anything to be a substitute for that.

[3:49] We want the real thing. That's spiritual fullness and the word of Christ dwelling you richly and the filling of the spirit. That worship. It says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It's saying there spiritual songs.

[4:06] It says teaching and admonishing one another. When we sing, there's doctrine in these songs. There's teaching in these songs. The words of these songs we can instruct one another. We can exhort one another because there's truth here.

[4:21] Things are not just quaint little ditties or fanciful words of men. Much of the time it's based on scriptural verses and scriptural truths.

[4:32] There's doctrine and teaching here. And so we can apply these scriptures that we're teaching and admonishing one another in spiritual songs because our worship is founded upon truth.

[4:44] Our worship is founded on truth. Not on fanciful words of men but on the word of God. God is seeking true worshippers. In John 4, 23, our Lord says, God is seeking true worshippers to worship him in spirit and in truth.

[5:20] There's a truth there that must be evident and manifest in our worship. That the truth of salvation by grace through faith, the truth of our Saviour, of his blood, sometimes that's neglected and we don't want to make that mistake.

[5:39] Brothers and sisters, we love to sing about the blood of our Saviour. We want to praise him for that and honour him for that. And so there's a spirit and truth. There's a solid Bible basis.

[5:50] And we can learn as we worship because there's an exhorting one another. We're teaching and admonishing one another. We're teaching and exhorting, encouraging, warning, comforting, encouraging as the word of God is sung, as we're singing truths, as we're singing doctrine.

[6:09] And the word exhorts us to sing and we didn't wait for church for that. It says in James 5, 13, Is any merry or cheerful? Let him sing psalms. We can sing psalms through the week.

[6:21] Have a song on your lips. And look at Acts 16. Paul and Silas guarded in a miserable dungeon. But at midnight, Paul and Silas, Acts 16, 25, they prayed and they sang praises unto God.

[6:37] And the prisoners heard them. Now what a testimony that would have been. That they, while everyone else is trying to get to sleep, they were singing praises unto God. Because they just wanted to praise God.

[6:49] And that's spiritual songs, isn't it? They're spiritual songs. A song that comes from our heart. A song that comes from our spirit. As we love the Saviour, we think of His salvation.

[6:59] We think of His grace. And the sufferings and testings that might face us are not something to put us off praising Him. And so we see that there is a wonderful spiritual fullness.

[7:11] Be filled with the Spirit. Have the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. There's a fullness there. There's a spiritual fullness. There's spiritual songs that we should sing. Based on truth. Based on doctrine.

[7:22] Based on salvation. Worship that's based on spiritual truths. Verse 19 of Ephesians 5, He's saying, How can you have that heart that's got a melody in it?

[7:49] That's got a joy in it. A joy that goes beyond circumstance and situation. A joy that goes beyond your own feelings and emotions. There's a melody that comes in your heart to the Lord.

[8:01] That goes beyond just the words in your mouth. There's a melody in your heart to the Lord. It's when your heart gets right with God. Peter said, Simon, your heart is not right with God.

[8:13] What a statement. That would have made you really sit up and take notice, wouldn't it? Is your heart right with God? You can't make melody in your heart to the Lord unless you're saved. The Lord Jesus challenged the Pharisees.

[8:27] He says to them, as the prophet prophesied would be so, in Matthew 15, 8, he says, This people draweth nigh to me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me.

[8:40] Are you drawing nigh to God with your mouth, but your heart is really not close to Him? Are you making melody in your heart to the Lord? Is it worship that springs from your heart?

[8:53] Is your heart filled with Christ? Are you saved? Do you know Christ as your Saviour? That's reason to praise, isn't it? That's reason to worship.

[9:03] Shouldn't that fill your heart with praise? To know His saving grace? That saving grace of Jesus. Do you know it? Is your heart filled with His peace?

[9:15] Does it rule? Does it reign? Is it that dominating, controlling factor of your heart? Or what rules in your heart? Are you worshipping with that heart that's in tune, with grace, His saving grace?

[9:31] Have you got the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly, that fullness, that worship, as you honour Him and esteem Him and count Him valuable? Worthy! Worthy is the Lamb.

[9:42] That's worship. It's worship. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. He is worthy of your praise, of your life. Let's go.