Jesus Who Reigns Is Worthy Of WorshipSample

HEARTFELT WORSHIP A. WORSHIP IS A RESPONSE OF PRAISE That’s what it means to bless God: to respond to God’s blessings in your life with heartfelt praise. When my kids were small and used to buy me a Christmas present, where did they get the money? From me! But when they gave back to me what I gave them, they were blessing me. We are to give back to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name (Hebrews 13:15), which flows from His abundant goodness to us. Like David, our hearts may grow cold and we may have to rouse ourselves to praise God. He is talking to himself in the psalm (“O my soul”), stirring himself to worship. He is deliberately remembering God’s blessings. The opposite of praise is forgetfulness (v. 2). Stop and count your blessings. Remember God’s goodness to you in spite of your self-centeredness and sin. And stir yourself to praise Him. B. WORSHIP IS A RESPONSE OF FEAR (VV. 11, 13, 17). To fear God means to live with the awareness that all you think, say, and do is open to His scrutiny (Hebrews 4:3) and that one day you will give an account to Him. The fear of God takes away silliness and trifling with the things of God. We shouldn’t goof around when we worship the Lord. We can have fun, but it must be tempered with reverence. C. WORSHIP IS A RESPONSE OF OBEDIENCE (V. 18). “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13) God isn’t impressed with our worship if we are not obedient to His Word. If you sing God’s praises on Sunday but are living in known disobedience to Him throughout the week, you are like King Saul, whom God rejected (1 Samuel 15:22)