Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the
Speaker 1: Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. We're so excited that
Speaker 1: you've joined us today. As we continue in this powerful
Speaker 1: series how the Church Meets your deepest needs. Together, we're
Speaker 1: uncovering the joy and strength that comes from being a
Speaker 1: part of God's family. Now, let's get over to Rick
Speaker 1: for part one of a message called how Worshiping with
Speaker 1: others changes you.
Speaker 2: God has five purposes for your life, and he designed
Speaker 2: his church to fulfill those five purposes in your life.
Speaker 2: To hope you fulfill those purposes. And today we're going
Speaker 2: to look at worship and how worship with particularly worshiping
Speaker 2: with other people changes and transforms you. You know, I
Speaker 2: was thinking today that one of the many realities of
Speaker 2: life that atheists have to come up with an explanation
Speaker 2: for is why do human beings naturally desire to worship?
Speaker 2: I mean, we're hardwired for worship. If you don't worship God,
Speaker 2: you're gonna worship something. But the amazing thing is, all
Speaker 2: around the world, in every single culture, people worship God
Speaker 2: in different ways, in different styles, and not even in
Speaker 2: the same belief systems. But we're hardwired for worship. Now
Speaker 2: that certainly isn't something a factor of evolution because it's
Speaker 2: not necessary for survival. So why is it that people
Speaker 2: automatically have a desire to know God, to know something
Speaker 2: greater than themselves. You know, in the world, they are
Speaker 2: about six hundred million Buddhists in the world, six hundred million.
Speaker 2: They're about eight hundred million Hindus in the world. They
Speaker 2: are about one point four billion Muslims in the world.
Speaker 2: There are about fifteen million Jews in the world. Course,
Speaker 2: so many were killed in the Holocaust and that shrank
Speaker 2: the the propagation of the Jewish faith. But there are
Speaker 2: two point two billion Christians in the world who say
Speaker 2: I believe Jesus is the Son of God. It's the
Speaker 2: largest organization on planet Earth, far bigger than China or India,
Speaker 2: or China and India put together. The bottom line is
Speaker 2: we're wired for worship. So today I want us to
Speaker 2: look at why we want a worship. We're going to
Speaker 2: look at three or four basic questions about worship what
Speaker 2: it does in our lives. So let's just begin first
Speaker 2: with a definition. What is worship? Well, I wrote one
Speaker 2: there on your outline you might look at it. It says,
Speaker 2: you might write this down. Worship is expressing our love
Speaker 2: and gratitude to God. Worship is expressing our love and
Speaker 2: our gratitude to God for who he is, what he's done,
Speaker 2: what he said, and what he's promised to do. Now
Speaker 2: that's a mouthful. Let me read it again. Worship is
Speaker 2: expressing our love and gratitude to God, God for who
Speaker 2: he is. We adore him, that saturation for what he's done.
Speaker 2: That's gratitude or great thanksgiving, for what he said in
Speaker 2: his word and what he's promised to do. And so
Speaker 2: anytime you express your love to God, you're worshiping. A
Speaker 2: lot of people think worship is music, worship tool, worship
Speaker 2: tool is music. But worship is much much more than
Speaker 2: just music. We're going to look at that in today's
Speaker 2: message now. In Mark chapter twelve, verse twenty nine and thirty,
Speaker 2: Jesus says this, the most important command of all is
Speaker 2: this one. You must love the Lord your God with
Speaker 2: all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,
Speaker 2: with all your strength. One day Jesus has asked what's
Speaker 2: the most important command in the Bible. He says here
Speaker 2: it is love. God with all your heart and mind
Speaker 2: and soul and strength. Love God emotionally, love God, physically
Speaker 2: love God, practically, love God with every area of your
Speaker 2: life mentally. Now I want to ask the question why
Speaker 2: do we express our love to God? Well, there are
Speaker 2: four big reasons. I could give you twenty five, but
Speaker 2: let's just give you four this weekend. Four reasons why
Speaker 2: we express our love to God in worship. Number one,
Speaker 2: because we were made to be loved by God. We
Speaker 2: were made to be loved by God. And because we
Speaker 2: were made to be loved by God, we inevitably love
Speaker 2: him back. First, John four nineteen says we love because
Speaker 2: God first loved us. If you don't feel like worshiping,
Speaker 2: it just means this, you don't realize how much God
Speaker 2: loves you. If you understood how much God loves you,
Speaker 2: you couldn't help but love him back. Our worship is
Speaker 2: a response. Our love to God is because He loves us.
Speaker 2: The only reason there's any love in the universe is
Speaker 2: because God is a god of love. God is love,
Speaker 2: and so he made us as a of love. Ephesians
Speaker 2: one four and five says this in the New Living Translation.
Speaker 2: Long ago, even before he made the world. God loved
Speaker 2: us and chose us in Christ to be holy and
Speaker 2: without fault in his eyes. See that verse. Before God
Speaker 2: created the universe, he had already chosen us in mind.
Speaker 2: He wanted you, so he created the universe so you
Speaker 2: could exist, and he chose us to be in Christ,
Speaker 2: to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His
Speaker 2: unchanging plan, it has never changed, has always been to
Speaker 2: adopt us into his own family by bringing us to
Speaker 2: himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
Speaker 2: Why do we worship God because we love him? And
Speaker 2: why do we love God because he loves us. We
Speaker 2: were created to have a love relationship of friendship with God.
Speaker 2: Number two, We worship because everything comes from God. You
Speaker 2: look around the air I breathe, the air you breathe,
Speaker 2: your heart beat your body, the water you drink, the
Speaker 2: food you eat, everything, the sunshine, everything comes from God.
Speaker 2: Not only did God create you, he created everything in
Speaker 2: the world to sustain you. First Chronicles, chapter twenty nine,
Speaker 2: verses fourteen, David says, as he has collected the largest
Speaker 2: offering ever in history. It is actually over I think
Speaker 2: in today's terms, about three hundred million dollars in a
Speaker 2: single offering, and it was for the building of the
Speaker 2: temple in Jerusalem. And David says this in First Chronicles
Speaker 2: twenty nine fourteen. These gifts did not really come from
Speaker 2: me and my people. He's saying this to God. Everything
Speaker 2: comes from you, and we could only give back to you.
Speaker 2: We can only give you back what you have given us.
Speaker 2: So why do we worship? Why do we express our
Speaker 2: love to God? Because He we were made to be loved.
Speaker 2: And number two, because everything comes from God. Number three,
Speaker 2: we worship because we understand life through worship. We understand
Speaker 2: life through worship. Every time you focus on God, you
Speaker 2: come into his presence. You drowned out everything else and
Speaker 2: you center in and focus on God and worship. It
Speaker 2: raises your perspective, it broadens your understanding. All of a
Speaker 2: sudden things start making sense. Have you ever been in
Speaker 2: the service where you walked into a worship service and
Speaker 2: you thought, I have so many problems that I'm going
Speaker 2: under and i feel like I'm ready to throw in
Speaker 2: the towel and I'm ready to give up. And yet
Speaker 2: something was said as the pastor taught from God's word
Speaker 2: that all of a sudden, you thought, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: I get it now, I know what the problem is.
Speaker 2: I know what the solution is. In Psal, I'm seventy three,
Speaker 2: Verses sixteen and seventeen. David said, I tried to understand
Speaker 2: it all the problems that were in his life, but
Speaker 2: he said, it was just too hard for me to see.
Speaker 2: I just couldn't see it until notice, until I went
Speaker 2: into the temple of God. He says, Then I understood
Speaker 2: what was happening all of a sudden. He gets God's perspective,
Speaker 2: He gets God's wisdom. You get God's wisdom when you worship.
Speaker 2: You get it from the Word, you get it from
Speaker 2: his presence. Then you understand what's going to happen. How
Speaker 2: many times have you gone, oh wow, now I get it.
Speaker 2: You're not going to get that kind of perspective watching television.
Speaker 2: You're not going to get that kind of perspective play
Speaker 2: in a sport. It only comes when you're in contact
Speaker 2: with God. And when I'm in contact with God, I
Speaker 2: understand life through worship. If you don't go to worship,
Speaker 2: you're going to miss out on the perspective that God
Speaker 2: has in store for you. Now you know. I've heard
Speaker 2: a lot of people say, well, I can worship God
Speaker 2: out in nature. Well, of course you can worship God
Speaker 2: out in nature. Who made nature? God? Did people say
Speaker 2: I feel close to God in nature? Of course you do.
Speaker 2: He made nature, and when he made man, he put
Speaker 2: him in a garden, not in a skyscraper. Man did that.
Speaker 2: But here's the point. You can worship God in nature,
Speaker 2: but you can't fellowship by yourself, and you can't involve
Speaker 2: other people in the act of worship. Personal worship is
Speaker 2: a good thing, but so is corporate worship or group worship.
Speaker 2: And the Bible has a lot to say about that.
Speaker 2: And if you only have personal worship you don't have
Speaker 2: group worship, you're missing out on the larger perspective that
Speaker 2: comes when you come to God's house of worship. David says,
Speaker 2: when I went to the temple, then I understood what
Speaker 2: was going wrong in my life, and you might not
Speaker 2: get that anywhere else. Now, there's a fourth reason why
Speaker 2: we worship together, and it's because God strengthens us through worship.
Speaker 2: God strengthens us. He not only helps us un stand
Speaker 2: things clear. We get a bigger perspective, we get a
Speaker 2: clearer conviction on life, but we also get the energy
Speaker 2: and the power to do it where through worship. There's
Speaker 2: so many passages I could share with you about how
Speaker 2: worship is designed to strengthen you. That when you focus
Speaker 2: on God and when you love and express your gratitude
Speaker 2: to God, he strengthens your heart, He strengthens your soul,
Speaker 2: he strengthens your body. Ps. I'm eighteen twenty eight to
Speaker 2: thirty two. I love this the contemporary English version. He
Speaker 2: says this, you Lord, keep my lamp burning. What does
Speaker 2: that mean? You keep my lamp burning. You know, if
Speaker 2: a lamp is built on oil, pretty soon it's going
Speaker 2: to run out of oil, just like a cark and
Speaker 2: run out of gas. Have you ever run out of
Speaker 2: emotional gas in the middle of the week. You got
Speaker 2: to get refilled, You got to get recharged. How do
Speaker 2: you do that by going to worship? And he says, Lord,
Speaker 2: when I come and I worship you, you keep my
Speaker 2: lamp burning. You keep me bright, you keep me sharp,
Speaker 2: you keep me on fire, you keep me lit up.
Speaker 2: He said, you turn darkness to light. You're gonna miss
Speaker 2: that if you're not in corporate worship. He says, you
Speaker 2: help me defeat the enemies of my life. Did you
Speaker 2: know that when you come to worship, God gives you
Speaker 2: strength to defeat the things that would defeat you in life,
Speaker 2: all of those little things that irritate you, that pick
Speaker 2: at you, that gnaw and nipp ature heels. He says,
Speaker 2: you defeat the enemies of my life. Your way, Lord
Speaker 2: is perfect, and your word is correct. So he shows
Speaker 2: the right way, and he tells us the right thing
Speaker 2: to do. He says, you are a shield for those
Speaker 2: who run to you for help. He says, you give
Speaker 2: me protection. And then he says this, you give me
Speaker 2: strength and you guide me right. Bam, that's what happens
Speaker 2: in worship. I get spiritual strength, and I get spiritual instruction.
Speaker 2: I get the right way to go, and then I
Speaker 2: get the energy to do it. I get strength and
Speaker 2: guidance on hand. Now, what kind of worship does God love?
Speaker 2: What kind of worship makes God smile? Because the Bible
Speaker 2: says real clearly, there's a right way to worship, and
Speaker 2: there's a wrong way to worship God. You certainly don't
Speaker 2: want to worship God in the wrong way. How do
Speaker 2: I worship God in the right way? Well, in two words,
Speaker 2: write this down. Here's the kind of worship God loves
Speaker 2: whole hearted worship. God loves whole hearted worship. It's the
Speaker 2: opposite of half hearted or insincere worship. He loves passionate worship.
Speaker 2: He loves it. When you tell God that you love him,
Speaker 2: you tell him passionately. When you're grateful for what He's
Speaker 2: done in your life, you tell him and thank him passionately.
Speaker 2: When you praise him, you praise him passionately with your
Speaker 2: whole heart. Did you know when you do worship with
Speaker 2: your whole heart that God blesses you in ways that
Speaker 2: he you wouldn't normally be blessed. Second Chronicles, chapter thirty one.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse. Check Chronicles thirty one, verse twenty one.
Speaker 2: Love this God's word paraphrase. Hezekiah dedicated his life to
Speaker 2: serving God. That's what the Bible says. Everything he did
Speaker 2: in worship in God's temples, this is corporate worship. Everything
Speaker 2: he did in worship in God's temple he did wholeheartedly.
Speaker 2: And now notice this phrase. Oh, by the way, As
Speaker 2: a result, it says he was very successful and he prospered.
Speaker 2: Hezekiah had one of those successful and prosperous reigns as
Speaker 2: a leader of Israel and Why did God prosper him?
Speaker 2: Why did God give Hezekiah such amazing success? Because he
Speaker 2: worshiped God wholeheartedly. You know, God hates the exact opposite
Speaker 2: of wholehearted worship. He hates insincere worship. He hates heartless worship,
Speaker 2: fake worship. Worship with your mouth, but not with your
Speaker 2: heart and your mind and your soul. You gotta love
Speaker 2: God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
Speaker 2: Let me give you an example the kind of worship.
Speaker 2: God says, you might as well just forget it and
Speaker 2: don't even check. In Isaiah twenty nine, verse thirteen, God
Speaker 2: says this, these people say they are mine. Now let
Speaker 2: me stop there. God is saying, these people claim to
Speaker 2: be my children, they claim to be in my family,
Speaker 2: they claim to be my followers, they're believers. He says,
Speaker 2: these people say they are mine, but they honor me
Speaker 2: only with their lips. Their hearts are far away from me. See,
Speaker 2: that's heartless worship. He said. They're not worshiping Me with
Speaker 2: their heart, They're worship being with their lips. It's just
Speaker 2: lip service. And he says, their worship of Me amounts
Speaker 2: to nothing more than you human traditions. That they have
Speaker 2: memorized and they say by rote. Oh my, have you
Speaker 2: ever been in a service like that where everything was
Speaker 2: memorized and said by rote and nobody's actually feeling it
Speaker 2: or saying it. They're saying it because they memorized your tradition.
Speaker 2: And they go to worship week after week, and they
Speaker 2: say the same prayers over and over and over, and
Speaker 2: they say the same rituals and the same liturgy over
Speaker 2: and over and over. And he says, they've memorized it,
Speaker 2: and they say it by road. He goes, they're not
Speaker 2: even thinking about it. Their mouth is in gear, but
Speaker 2: their mind and their heart are not engaged. God says,
Speaker 2: don't even bother. I don't want that kind of worship.
Speaker 2: I don't want memorized worship. Memorized worship by rote, that's
Speaker 2: just from the mouth, but not from the heart. What
Speaker 2: kind of worship does God want? Jesus tells us in
Speaker 2: John chapter four, verse twenty three. He says, true worshipers
Speaker 2: circle that true worshippers. You want to be a real worshipper.
Speaker 2: You want to be on authentic worshiper. You want to
Speaker 2: be the kind of worshipper that Hezekiah was that God
Speaker 2: could bless with success. Jesus says, true worshipers will worship
Speaker 2: the Father in spirit and in truth. That's the kind
Speaker 2: of worshipers the Father seeks. Now, what does it mean
Speaker 2: to worship God in spirit and in truth? Well, first,
Speaker 2: he's not talking about the Holy Spirit. He's talking about
Speaker 2: that's a small ass, that's your spirit. He says, you
Speaker 2: need this when you worship God. It needs to be authentic,
Speaker 2: and it needs to be accurate, authentic in spirit and
Speaker 2: in truth. Accurate. It needs to be doctrinal, and it
Speaker 2: needs to be devotional. It needs to be real, and
Speaker 2: it needs to be passionate in truth. It's got to
Speaker 2: be authentic based on God's word and in spirit. It's
Speaker 2: got to be from the heart. It's got to be
Speaker 2: heart felt worship. Now, I want to say something to
Speaker 2: you right now that may shock you. But I know
Speaker 2: that because we now have podcasts and we now have
Speaker 2: services online, there are many, many thousands of people watching
Speaker 2: this service online right now. Well that's better than nothing. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's better than nothing. But I want you to write
Speaker 2: this down, and then I want to explain what the
Speaker 2: antidote is it to it write this down This is
Speaker 2: very important. Watching worship is not worship. Watching worship watching
Speaker 2: other people worship is not worship. See God says, I
Speaker 2: want you to come to the house of worship. I
Speaker 2: want you to come to my temple. I want you
Speaker 2: to gather together. I want you to do the fifty
Speaker 2: eight to one anothers of the Bible together. Watching worship
Speaker 2: from your iPhone or your iPad, or from television or
Speaker 2: from the internet, that's better than nothing, But it's not worship.
Speaker 2: Why Well, in the first place, you probably multitasking a
Speaker 2: lot of times. You'll turn on a podcast and you're
Speaker 2: washing dishes, or you're working in the garage, or you're studying,
Speaker 2: or you're you know, picking up clothes or vacuuming. You
Speaker 2: might be ironing or whatever, and you're multitasking. Worship demands
Speaker 2: your total focus, and so it's real easy to check
Speaker 2: in and out a click. I'll watch worship for fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: click out. That wasn't worship. You watched the worship service,
Speaker 2: but you didn't worship because you didn't enter in with
Speaker 2: other people in the prayers and in the giving and
Speaker 2: in the silence and in the confession and in the
Speaker 2: committing and in all the other elements of worship. So
Speaker 2: when you're sick, obviously, tune into a worship service. When
Speaker 2: you're on the road and you can't be in your
Speaker 2: local church, do that. But you need a regular place
Speaker 2: of worship. And if you're in a place where there
Speaker 2: is no church. Some of you are in foreign countries
Speaker 2: where there's no church in your village, and you're watching this,
Speaker 2: start a group, Start a house church, start a small group.
Speaker 2: The Bible says where two or more are gathered in
Speaker 2: my name, near in mine, in the midst of them.
Speaker 2: All over the world that people gather in small groups.
Speaker 2: I know a group in Singapore has sixty seventy people
Speaker 2: that meet in a house and they don't just watch
Speaker 2: the saddleback service. They worship together. You can start a
Speaker 2: house church. You can start it in a building and
Speaker 2: a home, in an apartment somewhere, and actually where two
Speaker 2: or three are gathered in my name. Jesus said, I'm
Speaker 2: in the midst of them. So stop watching worship and
Speaker 2: thinking you're worshiping, you know, actually getting up, getting dressed,
Speaker 2: you know, getting clean, washing your hair, brushing your teeth,
Speaker 2: put it on some clothes, and going to a place
Speaker 2: of worship that is an actual act of worship too.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, I was glad when they said to me,
Speaker 2: let's go into the house of the Lord. How long
Speaker 2: has it been since you've been in a house of
Speaker 2: the Lord? He said, well, you know, I go once
Speaker 2: a month, or once every five or six weeks. God
Speaker 2: wants you to worship Him on the first day of
Speaker 2: every week.
Speaker 1: What a special message from Pastor Rick. And now let's
Speaker 1: hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick
Speaker 1: with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Today, I want to share a testimony from Ella, who
Speaker 2: listens to Daily Hope in Canada, and she wrote, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 2: like so many, I found every area of my life
Speaker 2: flipped upside down when the pandemic hit in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: I graduated from the university in April that year, and
Speaker 2: I was lost and desperate for guidance. Yet as stubborn
Speaker 2: as I was, I searched for answers everywhere else except
Speaker 2: in God's Word. But out of desperation, I read the
Speaker 2: purpose driven Life and I started listening to Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: Daily Hope was one of the resources that became monumental
Speaker 2: in my journey to giving my life to Christ a
Speaker 2: year after I started listening, And so I want to
Speaker 2: thank you, and I want to thank everyone at Daily
Speaker 2: Hope for all the work that you do. It must
Speaker 2: seem so abstract when people you reach are all over
Speaker 2: the world, but I know I'm not alone, and saying
Speaker 2: that Daily Hope has helped me find comfort and God
Speaker 2: when I needed it most. Wow, Ella, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you for writing, Thank you for telling me that
Speaker 2: you've accepted Christ. You know, I know so many people
Speaker 2: who are just like you. They're lost, they're looking for answers,
Speaker 2: and they keep looking everywhere but in the right place,
Speaker 2: God's word for the truth. But praise God, you found
Speaker 2: the word of God. You believed his word, and you
Speaker 2: believe that Jesus is the truth. So it's a blessing.
Speaker 2: It's a blessing to know that God is using this
Speaker 2: broadcast to help bring you and other people to Him
Speaker 2: on a daily basis. Now, you mentioned that it must
Speaker 2: be unusual to reach people around the world, even though
Speaker 2: I'm not able to meet him face to face, and
Speaker 2: I'd like to say this, I wish I could meet
Speaker 2: everybody face to face. I wish I could take every
Speaker 2: one of you out to a corner restaurant, sit down
Speaker 2: and have a cup of coffee, and just let me
Speaker 2: hear your life story. I would nothing would make me
Speaker 2: feel happier than doing that, But that's why I'm blessed
Speaker 2: to receive letters. Please write me, Please tell me your story.
Speaker 2: I want to know how God is changing your life,
Speaker 2: how God is using his word through Daily Hope to
Speaker 2: make a difference in you. So let me know what
Speaker 2: God's doing in your life. Let me know how He's
Speaker 2: using Daily Hope to help you in your Christian walk,
Speaker 2: and that way we can pray intelligently for you.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this
Speaker 1: broadcast has blessed you, he would love it. Please feel
Speaker 1: free to send him an email at Rick at pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com. Be sure
Speaker 1: to join us next time as we look into God's
Speaker 1: word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.