Sermon: The Heart of the Matter

Hey all!!!

So, at my church, we recently got a new head pastor, and he’s so dynamic and powerful in the pulpit, I love hearing him speak! He gave a very interesting sermon today about worship.

He used the song “Heart of Worship” as an introduction to his sermon, which was titled “The Heart of the Matter“, and drew from John 4:7-24, the story of Lydia at the well, to address the point that Lydia like so many of us changes the subject when talking to someone if we are uncomfortable with the subject matter. We as humans tend to abandon the deeper, more layered subject, and trade it for a shallow and surface subject, such as when Christians are asked about spiritual well being, they tend to change the subject to that of worship. He believes that the subject of worship is used as a diversionary tactic, a vehicle used so that Christians don’t have to, or are not forced to examine thier own lives in Christ. 

Litergy in the Latin means “Service of the people” – worship service.

He went on to define worship by what a theologian had said (I’m sorry, I can’t remember his name )

 

Worship: “True worship is putting your minds attention and heart’s affection on the Lord; praising Him for who He is, and what He has done.”

He then went on to ask the congregation a challenging question: When was the last time you really worshiped the Living God? This question perked my interest, because I thought that going to church was worshiping God. He goes on to say that the action of worship is something ingrained in humanity, that at the very essence of humanity, there is a need to worship something, and he said that was why we fall in love. I thought this was an interesting point! I really loved hearing him speak! It was here that he drew from Colossians 1:16. Then he used a great allegory, the arrow and the target. He made the point that it is impossible to put your arrow in the bullseye of the target if you don’t know what the target is. He then said “Humans pull from the quiver of the soul until it is empty” and that humanity tends to send arrows at false gods and idols because of misdirection of their attention.

He went on to quote Psalms 22:3, “The Lord is enthroned upon the praise of his people…” and he encouraged us to pour out the best of our energies for God, and avoid worshiping false gods. He also cautioned us that True worshipers don’t worry about the how-to, but the who.  He left us with a quote his choir director used to tell him at his old church, “you can sing a lie just as easily as you can tell a lie.”  And he told us that worship is the opportunity for Christians to re-center our lives on God through fellowship and praising His Holy Name.

All in all, it was a very well done sermon, and it truely made me examine what I had been enthroning in my own life, and I am challenging myself this week to work harder for enthroning God in my own life.

In God’s love.

Lucky