Louie Giglio - Out of the Gaze Comes the Praise
Today, we're focusing on this idea that it is both personal and it's corporate. And what I want us to see today is that there's a symbiotic relationship between these two things. The personal part of your worship and the corporate expression of your worship. It's both and a lot of times people will say when we start talking about worship and singing, raising our hands, expressing our love for God, they'll say, "Oh, that's private, that's a personal thing between me and God". And when people say that, I say, "That's true. Worship is a very personal, intimate, and in some ways, private thing between you and your maker. But it's not only personal".
And then there are other people who love the great assembly, and they love to get their praise on, and you might have had one of those sitting around you today during worship and you were thinking the whole time, "Man, they loving this worship time right now". And they just love this and love this and love all this. And that's great but that's not all worship is. It's both personal and corporate, and those two things are connected inseparably in the life of the worshipper. I wanna talk for a bit about the personal part of worship. You know, when we come into the corporate setting, there's a wave. Did you feel that today? And that wave didn't ask you how do you feel? Or are you feeling it today?
The wave just rose up in the house today because the people of God gathered in praise of God and a wave happened in this room and it lifted some of us just now. And that's what corporate worship does, it picks us up and it puts us on the wave of God's praise. But our personal worship, that's the place where we go deeper and that's the place where a connection is formed, and conviction is formed that lead us to that place where we can weather every kind of season with God.
When you walked in today, you could've come in in any stage of life and the wave of worship here, if you let it, would've lifted you today. But there's another dimension of worship, that's our personal worship and that's the place where we go deeper with God and that's the place where the connection is formed and the conviction is formed that allows us to continue to worship Him in every season of life. We see this in the life of David in Psalm 27. A Psalm, by the way, or a song if you wanna call it that, that's 3,000 years old.
So, what we're reading right now was written in 1,000 B.C. This is an old journey that we're on today of a lot of people on planet earth worshipping the same God that we're worshipping right now in this room. And David, when he writes this Psalm, he says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear"? Now that's a sermon right there. Somebody, that's your takeaway. You could just check out right here and right now if you got some things to do, you can slip out quietly and just let me know later, "That's what I came to church for today. I've been afraid of a lot of situations, but it dawned on me today that the Lord is both my light and He is my salvation, so who am I afraid of on this earth"?
This is David speaking to us. He said, "The Lord," amplifying even more, "Is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple".
He goes on to say, "For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling. He will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high on a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me. At his sacred tent I will sacrifice," that was our whole message last week, "With shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!' Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me".
And then he comes down to the very end and he says, "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living". See, this word "Confident," this is a word of conviction. This is a word that comes out of a personal place, this is a word that stabilizes us in a very unstable world. And so, he says, "So, wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart, wait for the Lord". A couple of things strike me about this Psalm, most notably, is how personal it is. There are many Psalms where it's all corporate. "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together". "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise".
But this is a very personal Psalm. He says, "The Lord is," looking at verse 1, "He is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident".
This is the personal side of worship is our response both personal and corporate to God, this is the personal part of it. And I think it all hinges on one word in this Psalm and I believe it's maybe the most important word for your life and it's this word that we see down when we read in verse 4. "One thing I ask from the Lord," one thing. And I wonder today, you know, we sang already here at Cumberland about a desire to tell God He's the first thing, the main thing in our heart. But I wonder if God came to me today and He said, "Louie, you get to ask me one thing and that's it". That is clarifying, right? All of a sudden, you're like, "Okay, wait a minute, I only get to ask for one thing"? He's like, "That's it, one thing".
What would the one thing be? What is your one thing with God today? And David said, "Oh, my one thing, it's very clear. Here's the one thing that I would ask from God and here's the one thing that I'm seeking, and here it is, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him," some translations say, "To meditate in His temple". I think the most important word in this Psalm and in life is this word "Gaze". To gaze on the beauty of the Lord. That Hebrew word, Chazah, means to behold. So, the one thing for me, David is saying, is to behold God.
Now, I always like to kinda, think about this word, "Behold," as the picture of the miracle of my relationship with God because God's name in the Hebrew is "I Am" and "I Am" really is just the word, "Am" or the verb "Be". And so, Be is the name of God. So, that's God's name, "I Am that I Am, I Be". And "Hold" is the opportunity that we have, not only to be held by God but also to put out arms around God as Abba, our perfect father so that I can put my arms around Be. I can Behold. I can gaze, I can intently meditate on, I can be absorbed by the beauty of God.
This is the one thing, this is the main thing, this is what I'm after. I wanna dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, but I don't just wanna be in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, I wanna gaze on the beauty of the Lord and I wanna meditate, I wanna stay there, I wanna be fixed on Him. And I believe it is the gaze of David that allows him to have the confidence and the conviction that in the circumstance, he's going to make it.
We see that in another one of David's Psalms, and in Psalm 16, he says it a different way. He says in verse 7, "I will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night my heart instructs me. I will keep my eyes," verse 8, "Always on the Lord". What is that telling us? It's telling us again, "I'm going to keep Him in my gaze". This is telling us that worship is personal. It's a about a person, it's about Jesus, it's about you and Jesus. And the door is open today for you to step into the throne room of almighty God and to put your gaze on Him. The invitation of life is to put your gaze on Him, worship at the start is personal. It's not about all of us being here together.
At the start, it's personal. It's not about the performance. I love the way that Jesus said this, I think we have it over here, He said, "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you'll have no reward from your father in Heaven. So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. When you pray," same thing, "Don't be like the hypocrites, they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And then your Father, who sees what is done," this is a key word, "In secret, will reward you".
In the secret place, this is where worship begins. That's why we say that it's personal, it's not a performance. It's the secret place. It's not about the Sunday gathering. The Sunday gathering is important, but worship doesn't start with the Sunday service, worship comes out of the secret place into the Sunday service. It's not about being seen. Have you ever felt like there was somebody... and I know this is judgmental and terrible and we shouldn't do it, but have you ever felt like somebody around you in worship was just, like, putting on a show? No? Well, personal worship isn't about being seen, it's about seeing someone.
And at the end of the day, it's about spilling over more than it's about being filled up. And this, I believe, is the secret to the corporate expression of the people of God. When you come in the door and you come from a secret place, you have a personal connection to God, you have already been worshipping God privately in the secret place where nobody saw you raise your hands, nobody heard your shout, nobody saw you kneel, nobody saw you on your face, nobody heard your song, except God, because the song was for God and you are happy that God received the song and it came out of you and God and the prize wasn't that somebody knew that you worshipped, the prize was God.
He was the main thing, He was what you were after, He was what you were seeking, He was who you wanted to gaze on, and in the secret place, there was a song of praise because the gaze of your heart was on the most beautiful one of all. And then when we came to church, that spilled over into the corporate assembly. In other words, I didn't come to church today to get filled up at church, I came to church today spilling over today because there was already worship going on in my heart before I got here.
And what you're seeing in me today is not the first time I worshipped today, it's not the only time I worshipped this week. You're not just catching me in the one moment in the song where my hands are up, my hand's been up all week long in the secret place with my God, in the place where only He saw my heart, and that's now spilling over into the corporate assembly. I've said this before but I would love, love, love to lead and be apart of a church where people come, where I come, where we come through the door, not looking for anyone on a platform to help us get our minds right and our gaze right with God, but we come through the door with our gaze on God, we come through the door with praise in our mouths.
And we're basically saying to the people who step on this platform, "Hey, I hope you prepared, I hope your heart's alright, I hope you have the right words to give us today 'cause we came through the door ready to worship almighty God. You just get two feet on this platform, we're already standing. Somebody strums a chord on a guitar or puts their hands on a keyboard, we're already up, we're already ready to meet God because we came through the door from a personal lifestyle of worship into the great assembly of the people of God and we're spilling over. We didn't come today to go, 'Man, can somebody help fill me up?'"
You're like, "Well, isn't that was church is for"? No, that is not what church is for. If that's what church is for, then what do you do the other six and a half days of the week? Church isn't for us to get our fix, church is for us to bring together our voices in praise of almighty God. And yes, sometimes we're gonna come low and sometimes we're gonna come high, but it's not gonna be the norm that we come not even thinking about the worship of God. But here's the thing, we all have feelings and sometimes we feel it and sometimes we don't. We all have emotions, and sometimes they're up, sometimes they're down.
And we all have circumstances outside of our control. These are real, all these things are real but if this is the soil of our praise, then our praise is all over the map, but if we allow our belief to sit above our feelings, if we allow the character of God to sit above our circumstances, and if we allow the things that we have a deep conviction of... Remember, this conviction comes out of the personal, out of the secret place, out of the closet, out of the gaze, that's where the conviction comes. I'm convinced of this that I'm gonna see the goodness of God in the land of the living. So, yes my emotions are all over the map, but I'm also convinced of something.
Yes, my feelings, they're all over the place, but I believe something. Yes, the circumstances, I got zero control over them and they're coming at me from every side, but the character of God remains, and out of the soil of the belief that I have in God, of the conviction that I have of God, of the character that I know of God, out of that soil comes a sound of praise and it is a weapon against the darkness. Second point of this talk therefore is, "True worship centered on Him is durable".
True worship is personal, true worship is durable. But here's the thing, the last of these points today is that true worship ultimately becomes public. The worship in the secret always goes public and that's why, if I can just be pastoral for a minute and step on my toes and maybe a few others in here, that's why some of you don't like to worship at church. It has nothing to do with the people, you just, "Oh, you know, I don't like the people with the skinny jeans on," it's a cop out sometimes for, "I don't have any worship going on in the secret place". "Oh, I'm not a hand raiser," is a cop out sometimes for, "I don't have any worship going on in the secret place".
'Cause I'd be shocked, I would personally and I'm not speaking for everybody alive on planet earth, but I would be shocked if somebody in the secret place got God almighty, the creator of the universe in view and didn't raise a hand. I'd be shocked if that was your whole life. My entire life, I have been in that closet with God, with my door closed, in the secret place with the maker of the universe who invited me into the open door of the throne room of the king of the world, but I never raised a hand in there. It's not my style. I'd be shocked. I think a lot of the tension in the corporate space is because there's a vacuum in the secret place. 'Cause what I found in my life is what happens in the secret place usually goes public.
It's important to God that He hear your voice in there and in here, mostly in there. It's important that God hear your voice. And some of you today are like, "God couldn't care less about me, and I don't even sing all that great and He knows that. He made me and gave me the voice I've got. So, when He created me, He was probably, 'You're not gon' be a real singer and you can just sit in the quiet place and we'll be fine in there. Just write notes. You're a real good writer.'"
But God wants to hear your voice. It's like a parent. There's no parent in this place today who would say... Any parents got more than four kids in here right now? Anybody over four? Anybody... Okay, thank you so much. Anybody got five kids or more? One. One person, alright okay. Okay, couple. Alright? Yeah, a few. Great. Numbers are going down. The brave among us or those who are not really great planners, I don't know, I don't know you. Let's go with the brave, let's go with the brave. Let's applaud the brave.
So, if you have five kids, and let's say three of 'em check in pretty regularly but two of 'em you haven't heard from since February. You are not gonna say to your friend, "Yeah, you know, we hadn't heard from him, and we haven't heard from her in months, but these other three check in all the time so we're good". God could have seven billion, nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine people talking to Him right now and go, "But I have missed your voice".
Secondly, God knows that you need to hear your voice in praise. You are the narrator of your story, therefore, just to say it a different way while we're, you know, I'm kinda poking at people a little bit. If you don't like the situation going on in your story, it's your fault 'cause you're doing most of the talking. Amen? You're like, "I don't like that. I don't like that. It's not my fault, it's their fault. All the talking I'm doing is just explain who all is at fault". Yeah, but what if you stop explaining who all was at fault and started talking about who is in your gaze and how, "Though there are many enemies around me and they are trying to besiege me, my head will be exalted above all of them and I will bring a sacrifice with shouts of joy and I will sing and make music to the Lord".
I'm going to change the narrative of my story because I need to hear my voice praising God. God wants to hear my voice, I need to hear my voice, the principalities need to hear my voice praising God. We don't fight against flesh and blood, we're fighting rulers, and powers, and principalities, and evil, wicked forces, and we're not really engaging them in the dialogue necessarily, but I just wanna say, if any of 'em can hear me right now, let it be known that I believe and declare that I'll see the goodness of God in the land of the living because my God is a good God, His name is Jesus.
If anybody is listening, His name is Jesus. If anybody's listening to me, His name is Jesus. Take that back to the captain. I mean, when the principalities lean in and all they hear is us with a narrative of loss and negative and defeat, they're like, "It's working". But if they can hear your voice, if you are really fighting against rulers and powers, then let it be known to the rulers and the powers that I worship God. "Yeah, but your circumstance is going downhill". "I know, but my God is going uphill. He's the owner of the hill. He sits at the highest place, and I belong to Him".
But then, lastly, we need to hear the sound of your voice. So, lift up your voice in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. You're like, "Louie, my voice is weak". I know, and there's something about us hearing the weakness in your voice praising God that is gon' do something in this place that's gon' be different than the sound of the person over here who's really of strong voice right now praising God. The desperate voice, the "We gotta have a breakthrough" voice, the "We had a breakthrough" voice, the "We've seen the miracle" voice, the "We're still waiting on the miracle" voice, all those voices, the texture and the tones together, that's what makes church, church.