Worship Works: This Time It's Personal

Sermon Text: Hebrews 13: 15 Through Jesus, therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

There are miracles around us all the time, yet we can always find something to complain about. There is ALWAYS something that you can worship the Lord or strike a sound of victory for. Your worship should be for an audience of one=GOD.

Point 1: Find Your Praise Quotient Ps 150: 3 – 5 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourines and dancing praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals…

(a) You are built to uniquely praise him…singers shouldn’t dance and dancers shouldn’t play instruments…clappers shouldn’t sing, etc. There are a variety of options to be able to praise God. He is equally satisfied with all or just one. When you worship God authentically, He will do a work in your life.
(b) God accepts all sacrifice of praise one is not better than the other
(c) Your praise quotient is a formulae that should produce Personal Praise/Worship + Authenticity = godly Results
a. Glory to his name
b. Renewing/refreshing of your spirit
c. Power for living
Worship God in the way that you are led to. Your relationship with God is personal and therefore your praise and worship should be personal. The Bible doesn’t dictate a particular style of worship but the focus is more on the fact that we SHOULD worship.

Point 2: Praise Him with Your Whole Heart Ps 9: 1 I will praise you , O Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders
2 Tim 1: 3 Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors.

James 3: 9 – 12 put it this way. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. (10) Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. (11) Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? (12) My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
So make sure your heart is:
(a) Washed by the blood of the Jesus
(b) Forgiven by the Jesus
(c) Through Jesus
Your worship must come from a pure source. If your heart isn’t clean, your worship is tainted. Contaminated hearts produce contaminated worship. We are to praise God with all of our being: our physical strength and spiritual disposition. If it doesn’t originate from deep within, it’s a shallow response to the request to worship.

Point 3: Praise Him: Visible not Audible Ps 22: 25 Msg Here in this great gathering for worship I have discovered this praise-life. And I’ll do what I promised right here in front of the God-worshipers.

Ps 42: 4 These are the things I go over and over, emptying out the pockets of my life. I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, Leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving— celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!

Matt 6: 25 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.
Most people would rather see a sermon than to hear one. We are to worship God in spirit and in truth. The Hebrew meaning of the word “worship” means one’s lifestyle. Don’t separate worship in church from your lifestyle. Your lifestyle should say “every time you see me, I’m worshiping.” What you look at on TV and who you hang out with are both forms of worship. A lifestyle of worship leads to no worrying. Make sure that your lifestyle matches your worship.