Pastor John's Blog
 

"Extravagant Worship" - Supplement 2

By Pastor John on 6/10/2008

There are some HUGE personal benefits to worshipping God.  We don’t worship God just for these benefits, but these are the ways God rewards us for our worship.

First of all, worship get’s our attitudes in the right place.  When I’m in a bad mood, I know it’s usually because I’m not spending enough time in worship.  Worshipping God gives us a grateful heart filled with love and joy.

Secondly, it prepares us for what’s ahead.  A lot of times, we think we know what our day is going to be like when we get up, but we don’t.  You never know when you’re going to get some bad news or a nasty email, or just have a stressful day.  Worshipping God fills our heart with love and joy and gives us strength for what lies ahead.  I know a lot of people who can’t start their day without God.  I’ve had people tell me, “Every time I start my day off reading the Bible, I have a good day.  But whenever I don’t, everything just seems to go wrong.”  I’ve also heard people say, “Every time I miss a Sunday, the rest of my week is downhill.  But after a worship service, I just feel so much better.”

Thirdly, worship makes us come alive.  I heard from one of my sources that at the Women of Faith conference, they were talking about not being led by emotions and anxiety.  We cannot feel 2 different emotions at the same time.  When we truly worship God with all of our hearts, it stirs the Holy Spirit living within us and this gives us an attitude of gratefulness.  When are hearts are in the right place, we die to our sinful nature and come alive to Christ.  Scripture comes alive in our hearts.  Sermons then come alive in our hearts.  And praise comes alive in our hearts.  God uses all these things to love us and pursue us.

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