WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.780 Why do we worship God? Why is it so important? You know, in the Bible we've got this book of 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:12.800 Psalms and we're looking at one each week right through the summer and all of those Psalms and 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:18.320 the one particular that we've just heard from Lorna just a moment ago actually have something 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:25.679 to say to us about why worship is so important. I'd like to tell you a story which I think helps 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:33.259 us to understand why worship is really, really important. And it's a story about an art gallery, 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:37.880 a man who was in an art gallery, he was an art critic and he was looking at this painting, 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:45.539 it was a very famous painting, it was painted in the 15th century and it had a pic in this painting 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:52.280 that you could see the baby Jesus in the arms of Mary and there was a saint on either side with 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:57.620 hills in the background. And yet the thing is, is that there seems something a bit strange about 00:00:57.620 --> 00:01:03.079 this painting. Everything seemed somehow wrong about it, everything was out of shape, out of 00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:08.939 proportion, out of perspective. It almost looked like Jesus could topple out of the painting at any 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:17.060 time. And this painting had puzzled art critics for years and years and then this particular famous 00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:22.260 critic was in the gallery was in London, one particular day, looking at this painting for 00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:29.540 hours trying to work out why it was so unusual. And then a thought occurred to him, he thought maybe 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:36.260 this painting was not wrong at all, it was rather the way that he was looking at it that was wrong. 00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:45.520 And he thought maybe, just maybe, that the painting had never been intended to be put in a gallery, 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:52.479 but rather it was meant to be in a place of prayer. And so at that point he decided to carry out a 00:01:52.479 --> 00:01:56.979 little experiment. Instead of standing looking at this painting, he got down on his knees as though 00:01:56.979 --> 00:02:02.979 he was praying. And the moment he got on his knees and started to look up at the painting, suddenly 00:02:02.979 --> 00:02:10.500 everything came into place. The faces in the painting all seemed right again. They seemed natural and 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:15.419 relaxed and everything seemed into the right kind of perspective and proportion. 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:23.439 And so he suddenly realised there's something really important there for all of us to remember. 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:32.819 When we worship God, everything falls into place. Things somehow seem right. It's really hard to 00:02:32.819 --> 00:02:37.780 explain to somebody else who's never worshipped God what it's like to really worship God. But when you do, 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:42.099 when you're in that position of prayer, and by the way, you don't have to be on your knees literally 00:02:42.099 --> 00:02:47.580 to worship God, but when you do worship God, things take on a new perspective. 00:02:49.379 --> 00:02:57.560 I'm going to show you a quick magic trick. And it's a little trick just to help us to think a bit about 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:04.340 when it comes to worship, we need to remember that worship is about all of our times in life, 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:10.800 not just when we're feeling happy. God wants us to worship him when we're feeling happy, but also 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:19.159 when we're feeling sad. See, when we worship God, we bring our hearts to God. We bring him ourselves, 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:23.080 as we really are. And sometimes we will be feeling really happy, and sometimes we'll be feeling 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:29.800 not so happy. See, as we go through life, sometimes things happen to us that make us feel sad. 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:38.620 Sometimes people will talk of having a broken heart. Things go wrong. People feel sad and frightened 00:03:38.620 --> 00:03:52.700 and upset as disappointments and hurts come our way. The thing about worship is that we can know 00:03:52.699 --> 00:04:00.099 that whatever is going on in our lives, and no matter how sad or broken we may be feeling, 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:10.719 we can bring all of that before God in worship. You know, there's an old saying that says that 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:20.560 if you just bring God the pieces, he can mend any broken heart. And I don't quite understand how this 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:26.339 works, but I do know that it's real. That even if you are feeling sad, especially when you're feeling 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:32.079 sad, if you bring that before God, if you come to him as you actually are, not pretending to be 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:39.660 something you're not, but as you are, even in your sadness, you will find that God has this mysterious 00:04:39.660 --> 00:04:45.180 way of putting those pieces back together again and making us whole. 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:57.960 And that's why we worship God. It's really hard to explain unless you've actually experienced it, 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:05.360 but when you experience it, it really changes things. Let's pray together now, shall we? Let's pray. 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:14.720 Lord God, thank you that when you call us to worship you, it's because you want us to form a friendship 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:21.920 with you, a relationship with you, to know you, and to know the peace that you can bring. So help us to 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:31.300 do that this day and every day, to know your peace. Help us to give to you our hearts when we are feeling 00:05:31.300 --> 00:05:38.160 sad as well as when we're feeling happy. In Jesus' name. Amen.