(Clip) Why We Need Worship With the Word — Shane Idleman

Worship Requires Repentance and Truth

If you want to truly worship God, you must worship God in spirit and in truth. Many people this morning are not worshiping God. They're going through the motions. Number one, if you are not saved, you are not worshiping God.

From Religion to Relationship With God

You might be moving your lips, you might be singing songs, but you're not worshiping God. True worship is a heart that's connected with the Father and that there's a disconnect through sin and once that connection is made again through repentance and belief in Jesus Christ, that relationship is made whole again.

Now I can worship. And that's the big distinction between religion and relationship. Many people have religion. They go through the motions. There's our songs, there's our ritual, there's this. I did it, I go home, I worship.

No, you didn't worship. You had religion. But relationship worships God. And it shouldn't want to abruptly stop. There should be something in the heart that wants to worship. And that's my concern for many churches, even this one, is that this is a powerful worship service.

It's not a cemetery. It's we're worshiping God. And sometimes our hearts get disengaged. We're in a hurry, we're thinking this. We just, and it affects our worship. Here's what else will affect your worship.

A Renewed and Humble Mind in Worship

Is your mind being renewed by the truth? Is your mind being renewed by the truth? Because where your mind goes, your worship follows. Where my mind, if my mind is set on all the things of the world, my worship is focused on the things of the world.

It's hard to worship God and love the world. You actually can't. There's a distinction, a difference that has to be made. Is your mind in a state of being teachable and humble? The reason I say that is because a prideful man, guilty as charged, cannot worship God.

You cannot come in a church prideful and arrogant and expect to worship God. Because worship is the breaking of the heart, being teachable before God, being humble, and saying, Lord, how great thou art.

Lord, how great thou art. I'm not great, I need you. Lord, I need you this week. My anger took over. This besetting sin came back in. I didn't treat this person right. I didn't say the right thing. Lord, I'm nothing.

This job I have, you gave me. This career, you gave me. This degree at college, you provided it for. Lord, I'm nothing. And I worship you from a teachable, humble, broken heart. Without that, you can't worship God.

Because you come in here thinking, I don't need to do this. That's formality. Just get to the word of God, Shane. Shane, just get to the word. No, no, mm-mm, wrong thing there. That's one of the things I want to do with Wednesdays.

I didn't talk about this last night, just dawned on me. I want to talk about this morning, is, and you can check your phones too while we transition. There's something interesting that happens, and I've seen this many, many times.

The Threefold Pattern of Word, Worship, and Prayer

And I slide back and forth sometimes too. You have, it has to be threefold worship. The word of God, worship, and prayer. What happens is that you have these people, let's start on this side. It's all this, it's all this, it's all this, it's all this.

Give me Bible study, give me Bible study, give me Bible study, give me Bible study, and after that, give me another Bible study. Pull out the Greek, pull out the Hebrew, I just want to study my Bible.

I don't want to worship, I don't want to pray. Well, that, you'll turn into a Pharisee. Knowledge puffs up, and you will, trust me, turn into a Pharisee. Now we have this side. Just give me worship, brother.

Just two hours of worship. I haven't read my Bible in three months, but just give me worship. You're gonna fly away with no grounding, no, nothing, you're just worshiping. And I've seen those people. I mean, they're worshiping, they're emotional, and they're not obeying the word of God.

Talk to their spouse, and they're like, I don't know why they're here. They shouldn't be. They've got to start applying the Bible that they know. Because see, then, if we just worship without the word, and repentance, and teachable, we're worshiping a God of whatever.

God, you don't care that I'm a jerk. You don't care that I'm bitter. I need to leave my husband, because he's this. And you just start worshiping this God, and you make him out to be whoever you want him to be.

But you combine that with the word, and obedience to the word, then it conforms your worship to the word of God, and the word of God becomes more alive, because now you're worshiping, and the heart of God is within you.

But then we have those people who just want to pray. Just leave me alone, I'm just gonna pray for an hour. I'm just a prayer warrior, I'm just gonna pray. You gonna worship? Nope, I don't want to worship.

You want the word of God? I know the word of God, I read it last year. And they're just praying, and praying, and praying, and praying. Well, guess what? The Pharisees did that as well. It's formality.

It's words to God. It's vain repetition without the heart of worship, and without the word of God. It's a three-fold cord that will not be broken. And we have to have all three. And that's why it's challenging at the church.

This group just wants just studies. This group just wants worship. And this group just wants prayer. But the church, we have to be, it has to be all three. You have to study the word of God, please. We encourage it, we're gonna be doing it.

We have Sunday mornings before the service at 9 a .m. for the study of God's word. We'll have a Thursday, we'll have a Wednesday. We encourage that, but don't discount worship. Because that's, to just throw this out there, that's really where God began to change my heart, is once I finally became a worshiper.

Personal Surrender and the Breaking of Pride

And not just this methodical, you know, knew the word of God, but became to worship God and let the heart break before God. It's one of the things, one of the reasons even why now I raise my hand sometimes during worship, because I would have never done that.

For me, it's a pride thing. It's like, my pride is to do this, normally. Mm-mm, mm-mm, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not. So for me, it's an area of submission. But for others, it could be an area of self-exaltation.

They want people to see how holy and spiritual they are. So they're just worshiping, and that's not genuine. It's not coming from the heart. That's why we all worship differently. There's different types of worship that happen.

We shouldn't make fun of either type. There's nothing to make fun of. It's a genuine heart. But for me, that's why, that's why I do it, is because I don't want to do it, because manly men don't do that.

Right, manly men bench 400 pounds and drink a 12-pack of beer and get in fights. That's what I did for 10 years in my 20s. That was, I mean, because you have this image. I used to walk in the gym, put on 300 pounds, and do it 10 times.

Because, oh my gosh, look at, right, that's a man. But I lost my marriage. I was a jerk. I punched holes in the wall. I was mean to people. That's not a man. So we have this false perception of what it means to be a man.

Surrender as an Act of Humility

So that's why I do it. Last night, amazing thing. We were singing that song, I Surrender, I Surrender. I'm in the back, and I just felt it. You know if you felt, and Lord's just like, get on your knees, get on your knees on this chair.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no. No, I'll do this, that's about it. It's in the back, nobody sees. Maybe people in the sound booth. And finally, halfway through the song, I just got on my knees, turned around the chair, and I just stayed there for the whole song, and No Longer Slaves, and just stayed there.

And God just began to break my heart again and just soften it, because it can get hard. It can get callous, and there's a submission that takes place. Submission, and that message just was on fire. I felt the presence of God from the moment I got up to the moment worship stopped.

I got home, my wife says, why don't you like this more often? I was just happy, I was filled with the spirit of God, because God broke me and broke me wanting to play with the kids, and it's nine o 'clock at night, and I'm just filled with God's spirit because of that surrender, that point of surrender.

And I knew it, no, I'm not gonna do that. That's not you, God. That's not you. Well, I know it's not me. And I guarantee that's not the devil. That's very easy to find out. That's not the world, that's not me, and that's not the devil.

That's God saying, humble yourself. Lead by example. Get on your knees and submit and surrender. And that's what we need to be more flexible in worship sometimes. That's the point of the Wednesday night.

Heartfelt Worship Versus Empty Formality

I'm not talking about weirdness, right? I hope you understand that. I'm not talking about a circus, and we're like hooping and hollering and acting like a circus. True worship, though, is not cemetery.

True worship is not conservative. It's not minding your Ps and Qs. I've got my shirt all buttoned, and I'm just gonna sing two songs and leave. Worship, heartfelt worship is the heart worshiping God. I mean, we do this when the Broncos are winning.

Oh my gosh, my team, they just won. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

But we get to church, right?

No, here's that, mm-hmm, no longer slaves, how great thou art, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. Pfft, gotta go by Home Depot later. Right, mow the lawn, oh, God, another song. I hope Shane doesn't talk too long.

I mean, that's what happens. So what happened, though, what happened? The heart, it's the heart, it's a heart issue. Anytime you get more excited about the Broncos or the Cowboys, and it's just excitement, excitement, but you come to the house of God, and it's dead, there's something wrong with your heart.

You need spiritual resuscitation. Get out the defibrillator, the board of God, and we need to worship and worship and wake up this heart. People broken before God, that's worship.