WORD – WORSHIP – WORK
Get into the flow of God's order and experience the fullness of his provision…
Psalm 100
1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
This psalm perfectly describes how we should come into God's presence when we come together as a church. Our hearts are overflowing with thanksgiving and praise and we are ready to testify to his mercy and his faithfulness in our lives!
But this psalm only deals with the preliminaries. The first four verses acknowledge the REAL – the reality of God's presence with us – but verse 5 is the launching pad into the RELEVANT and the RADICAL!
The LORD is good – his mercy is everlasting – and his truth endures to all generations! His Word is as RELEVANT today as when it was first spoken and recorded, and its effect in our lives is as RADICAL as the experience of those who first heard it and believed it!
Jesus said:
John 8: 31 – 32 (The Message)
31-32 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you."
God's word is not just a history lesson!
Hebrews 4: 12 (NIV)
12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
And so, when we acknowledge God's goodness, the REALITY of his mercy that is everlasting and the perpetual and enduring RELEVANCE of his truth to all generations including our own then we are ready to hear his word and experience the RADICAL work that his word and his Spirit can accomplish in our lives when we respond in worship.
Romans 12: 1 – 2 (NLT)
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
We have tended to think that worship was the way to prepare our hearts for the word but the truth is that worship is how we should respond to the word. Thanksgiving and praise – acknowledging God's presence, his majesty and power, and his goodness and his mercy – are how we prepare for the word.
WORD – WORSHIP – WORK
Last month we saw that the word of God's love comes to challenge us, and how the challenges we face influence the choices we make and the choices we make determine the changes that take place in our lives. We recognised that the only part of this process that we have little to no influence over is the nature of the challenge that we will encounter. We also saw that the choices we make in relation to the challenges will determine whether our lives change for the better or the worse.
Do we really want to see God's word become more effective in our own lives and in the lives of others? I believe it is time to see God's word doing the RADICAL work that only he is able to do!
I also believe that the LORD has revealed to me a correction that we can make that will help us to experience a far greater level of supernatural change in our lives and in the lives of others as we respond to the word of God in worship!
Thanksgiving and praise open our hearts to receive the word but worship seals the deal. Something happens to the word as we worship – it comes alive in us and does a supernatural work!
God is a God of order and I believe that it is important that we recognise and flow with this order – WORD – WORSHIP – WORK!
Too many times at the end of a service the word is stolen out of our hearts before we even reach the door because we go straight into a cup of tea / coffee or engage in conversations that have no relevance to what we have just heard, or we race home to eat. We need to take time to seal up the word and let it do its work in us! And that work is done as we respond to the word in worship!
We need to look at some New Covenant examples of this.
Matthew 7: 28 – 29; 8: 1 – 3 (NIV, NKJV)
WORD – 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law…
WORSHIP – 1 When He (Jesus) had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."
WORK – 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 9: 18, 25
WORD – 18 While He spoke these things to them…
WORSHIP – …behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live."
WORK – 25 But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
Matthew 15: 21 – 28
21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed." 23 But He answered her not a word.
And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us."
WORD – 24 But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
WORSHIP – 25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"
26 But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."
When you are in an attitude of WORSHIP you can hear anything the LORD says without being offended!
27 And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."
WORK – 28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Something happens to your faith as you worship – you can hear and receive whatever he says and your faith speaks and takes you into the RADICAL realm of the Spirit where anything is possible!
Lastly, we need to look at what is probably the worst case of demonic oppression and bondage recorded in the New Testament. This man was a complete no-hoper and a total write-off as far as the world was concerned.
Mark 5: 1 – 9, 15
1 Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when Jesus had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
WORD – 6 When he saw Jesus from afar…
Jesus – the Living Word – love personified – was advancing fearlessly towards him!
WORSHIP – …he ran and worshiped Him.
Not even 6000 demons could stop this man from responding to the word in worship!
7 And he (the demon) cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me."
8 For He had said to him (the demon), "Come out of the man, unclean spirit!" 9 Then He asked him, "What is your name?"
And he (the demon) answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many."
WORK – 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
Is anyone persuaded yet? WORD – WORSHIP – WORK – God's order works!
1 Thessalonians 2: 13
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Jesus said that we could only truly live the life God intends for us by receiving every word that God speaks in an attitude of worship. Anything less allows the enemy to access our lives and steal, kill, and destroy.
I don't know about you, but I have had enough of seeing the devil run rampant through our families, churches, communities, and nations – stealing, killing, and destroying. Over the past few months in New Wine Church we have been teaching what the word of God says about healing. Those who are sick in spirit, soul, or body need to be challenged by the word so that they can choose to be healed.
Some folks would like to just pray for the sick and see them healed without ever having to challenge them with the word but that is out of order.
Matthew 11: 4
4 Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Acts 8: 5 – 8
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. 6 And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralysed and lame were healed. 8 And there was great joy in that city.
WORD – WORSHIP – WORK
Remember – as the word of God challenges you it is the choice you make in response that determines the change that you will experience.
Recently we changed the order of our services slightly. We believe it is important to allow the Holy Spirit opportunity to speak or minister through the members of the Body, but we also believe that God is a God of order and so we have made some adjustments to help flow better in his order.
Previously, we had an extended time of praise and worship including communion before the word was preached, and then a time of invitation and ministry following the word. Now, we have a shorter time of praise before the word – followed by a time of worship and communion, allowing people the opportunity to personally respond to the word in faith and have the work accomplished in them that the word is sent to do. This is the supernatural work that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish as he comes to confirm the word with the manifestation of salvation, healing, and deliverance. Personal ministry and prayer are, of course, still available to anyone who desires it.
Psalm 95: 1 – 3, 6 – 11
1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods……..
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.'
11 So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' "
If you receive the word in an attitude of worship then you will experience the supernatural work of God. Let's worship…
