Matt Hagee - The Voice of Worship
Tonight we're going to conclude our teaching series on worship. And we're going to speak about "The voice of worship," the unity that is involved in worship. You just saw a demonstration of it. You've experienced the demonstration of it here in this evening's service. And so I invite you to turn for just a moment to the 100th Psalm, all five verses of it. It's a long one, as we have the opportunity to consider what God says about worship. Now I know for those of you, who came on Sunday morning for the last three weeks and heard our teaching series on "Seven lessons and seven laps," you know already that if you're not taking notes, you should be.
So just to remind you, we printed up a little green card and we stuck it in the back of the pew in front of you. It actually says, "Taking notes? You should be". And if you'd like to, you can take that and use it for your notes this evening. You can take your notes on your cell phone, post them on your social media. Take pictures of this really cool set and tell the world that things are really happening at cornerstone. Also we invite you to take this card and fill it out. If we can be of service to you, please let us know by dropping that in the offering or by handing it to one of our ushers as you leave. And we look forward to all that we can, as a church, to meet your needs tonight. Tonight, you're cordially invited into the throne room of the King of kings. And Psalm 100:1 through 5 reminds us of that. If you're there, say, amen. Let's read it together.
"Make a joyful shout to the Lord all you land. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. 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. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting. And his truth endures to all generations".
Heavenly Father, let your Holy Spirit open our hearts, and minds, and ears to listen to what you have to say tonight: that we might recognize that your truth endures to all generations. In Jesus' name, we pray. And all of God's children said... Praise the Lord.
We've been talking about worship. And the first concept that we presented about worship is the heart of worship. What is the attitude that you should enter into the house of God with? Here in Psalm 100, it says: come before the Lord with joy. Serve the Lord with gladness. How many of you've ever known someone who served the Lord but they didn't have gladness? Psalms is very clear. When you serve God, do it with gladness. And it says: enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. In that first message and teaching, I was showing you how in John 4, Jesus was having a conversation with a Samaritan woman. And they were talking about preferences. And preferences are something that we still talk about when it comes to worship in the church today. Well, I like this style of music. Well, I like this kind of music. Well, I like this artist. Well I like that.
You know what worship's about? It's not about preference: it's about a person. And the person is God Almighty. So the woman at the well, the Samaritan, she asks Jesus a question of preference of tradition. She says, where should we worship? Do we worship on this hill where my forefathers say to worship? Do we worship in Jerusalem where your forefathers say to worship and Jesus lets her know it's not a preference: it's an issue of heart. In John 4:23, he says: "The hour is coming, and now is when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father is seeking such to worship him".
In every service, there are true worshippers, and then there are just participators. And true worshippers are the ones who are worshiping in Spirit and in Truth. True worshippers can walk into any environment, any cultural setting, any place of any tradition that might not absolutely line up with theirs. And as long as God's presence is in the place, they're going to be just fine. Now participants, they look a little different than a true worshipper. Participants are like a light switch, on again, off again, on again, off again, on again, off again. Participants go, oh, I love this song. Praise you Jesus, praise you Jesus, praise you, praise you, praise you. And then all of a sudden that song is over, and they go... And the next song comes on, and it's, praise you, you. You? You. And the reason that they're so hot and so cold in such an instant is because they're constantly dealing with their preference versus the person and the presence of God in the room.
The Bible says it was the Holy Spirit that drew you to salvation. Some people say, well, I was saved under this man's ministry, or, I was saved at a tent revival, or, I was saved at a cowboy church, I was saved at a motorcycle rally, or, I was saved at... I was saved at... We've heard all the testimonies of all the places. And we ought to make a film "101 ways to get saved". And sometimes we allow our experience to determine our preference. Because I was saved in a certain place in a certain way, I want to make sure that I stay right there. And the truth is, you weren't saved at a certain place at a certain time. You were saved when the Holy Spirit drew you to salvation. Therefore any place you find that Holy Spirit, you should feel totally comfortable. If God shows up at a bike rally, you're having church. And if he shows up on a Thursday night in an auction Barn in West Texas where the cowboys are having church, you're having church. And if he shows up on Sunday morning, or a Saturday night, or 6:30 Sunday evening, and he's there, guess what? You're having, hallelujah.
So Jesus threat woman at the well know that the heart of worship is not about preference: the heart of worship is about the perSon of God: that he is worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be praised for what he has done. He's worthy to be praised for what he is doing. He's worthy to be praised for what he will do. Another topic that needs to be included in worship, and I'll introduce it briefly, and then get on with "The voice of worship," which is unity, are the hands of worship. We have people debate all the time about what you should do with your hands when you praise. We have some that are very liberal. We have some that are sort of casual. We have some that are incognito. And we have some that are cold, because they're always sticking them in their pockets. And we look at what other people do with their hands during worship.
And we want to make worship about what we do with our hands. Did you see how many hands were raised up tonight? Oh, it was strong. Are you talking about the praise or the odor. I don't know. Just... And here's what the Bible says, 1 Timothy 2:8. Paul was speaking. He says: I desire that men pray everywhere, now listen to this, lifting up holy hands. Say that with me, "Lifting up holy hands". Position of your hands: condition of your hands. Paul didn't say, "I just want them to lift up their hands". He said, "I want them to lift up", what kind? "Holy hands". And then he qualifies it. He says: I want them to lift up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. Why those two behaviors? Because wrath is the carnal nature of your flesh. When you demonstrate wrath, you are holding unforgiveness, and you are saying, vengeance is mine.
And the Bible says: vengeance belongs to the Lord. And when you're doubting, you're allowing your mind to be consumed with the concerns of the world and not trusting and believing that God can do it. So what Paul is saying is whenever you lift up these holy hands, you have to do it in a spiritual act of surrender that you are going to let go of every one of your urges and every one of your mental mountains that need to move. You're willing to release them because you believe there's something up there that's greater than you are down here. So what are holy hands? Holy hands have been washed by the Word of God. I said a few weeks ago that whenever I was a child, and I came in for dinner, my mother would always ask the kids the question, "Have you washed your hands"? How many of you had a mother like that?
And I used to try everything in the world to avoid washing my hands, not recognizing that the fastest way to get what I wanted, which was dinner, was just to wash my hands. I'd go to the garden hose and I'd run them under the garden hose. See mom, they're wet. And then whenever the wet didn't work, she'd say, let me smell them. So then I just started taking air fragrance and spraying it on them. And when potpourri was a dead give away, I still had to wash them. You see she had gone through great lengths to make sure that I was going to receive something wonderful at dinner. And in order for me to sit down table and receive provision, I had to qualify myself by obediently washing my hands. And it's the same with God's word.
Here's what Ephesians 5:26 and 27 says about the washing of the water of the word. It says that Jesus Christ sanctified his church and cleansed her with the washing of the water of the word: that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot and not having wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she would be what? Holy. She would be what? Holy, without blemish. How did he make her holy? He washed her with the water of the words. What kind of hands does Paul want us to raise? Holy. How do we make them holy? We wash them with the water of the word. The Word of God washes the things of self out of our lives so that the presence of God can move. And then you're ready to receive.
The problem that a lot of God's kids have is they're the kind of people that James 1:22 and 24 describes. James 1:22, it says: but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. Churches are filled with hearers, but there are very few doers. How many times do we talk to brothers and sisters in Christ, and they've got a problem, and you tell them what the Bible says about the problem, and their mediate response is, "I know that"? You ever had the conversation with the "I know that" tribe? They're out there. And the reason they've got a case of the "I know that's" is because they've heard it for years, but they've never tried it. They're not willing to do it.
Here's what the Bible says about these individuals. It says: for anyone who hears the word and is not a doer, he is like a man, who observes himself in a mirror, and then walks away immediately forgetting what kind of man he was. It's like you walked up and you looked in the bathroom mirror, and you saw a big old piece of blue cheese from your cob salad at lunch stuck right here. And rather than address the issue, you just went, "I'm good," and walked out. This is also describing something that was in the Old Testament in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the place where God wanted to meet with his people. Now, the tabernacle is with men through the Holy Spirit. But he also brings us together in this church.
Have you ever been in a service where you felt God move, and you've been in other services where there wasn't nothing moving? What happened? Was God not faithful? Was his word not true? Was something dramatically different from one week to the next? Yes. And it wasn't in heavenly places: it was in earthly places. We didn't come to the sanctuary with our hands prepared to receive the living bread that God was going give to us. Like that kid going to my mother's dinner table, we hadn't done what was required to get what God had set aside as our provision. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Psalms that we read tonight that his faithfulness endures to what? All generations. To how many generations? Generations.
God is faithful to move from one generation to the other. He said: if two or three of you will get together, I'll be there. And whenever we get together and we don't feel him, it's not because he's not here: it's because we didn't wash our hands. We didn't pick up this word and look at it. And when we read it and we saw ourselves in it, so that we looked more like the Jesus in this book than the guy who needs a change. There are a lot of times that we forget what this word will do in our lives, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. If you're not taking notes... you should be. Half of you are and half of you are like, I'm done.
If you will take the water of God's word, and you will apply it to your life on a daily basis, you will begin to wash the of you so that he can pour more you. You'll hear his voice more clearly than you've ever heard it before. You'll know which way he's asking you to walk. You won't wonder about whether or not God's working. You'll just start getting excited that you know he's working all the time on your behalf. The things that we read in the Word of God about those who wash their hands, in Psalms 24:3, the question is asked: who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in the holy place? Listen to this. How many of you are starting to think clean hands are important to God? Clean hands produces strength.
Job 17:9, it says: the righteous will hold their way. Clean hands will grow stronger. Clean hands are not perfect hands. Clean hands may have done something vile and dirty at one time, but they've washed those hands in the blood of Jesus and the word, and now they're cleansed. Clean hands enable fellowship. James 4:8: come near to God and he will draw near to you. Wash your hands and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Now that's pretty plain talk. When God says, if you sit in my house on Sunday, and you don't think about me Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, you're double-minded. You want me to show up on one day, and you want to forget me on six days. That's not how you get ready to receive what God wants.
When it comes to worship, David said in Psalms 26: I wash my hands, and I go about your altar, o God, proclaiming aloud your praise, and telling your wonderful deeds. The message is very clear. We cannot come to church fully receive prepared, which requires some responsibility out of all of us. How many of you've ever been to a restaurant that had a dress code? You walked up, and it said, "No shoes, no shirt, no service". And if it says, "No problem," it's probably a plastic menu that you can you know just take PEPCID before you walk in, indigestion is your friend. God has a dress code. His dress code is not coat, slacks, tie required. His dress code cannot be purchased at Dillard's, or Macy's, or any other store here on this earth.
God's dress code is a spiritual one. And he says, when you come into my presence, I expect you to be wearing garments of praise. And I expect your hands to be washed in my word. And then, I will begin to move. Because when God moves, the world knows it. Here's the painful truth. The reason that men don't look into the water of God's word is because when they look into the water of God's word, they see their reflection, and they don't like what they see. The good news is that God has not sent his word to condemn us: God has sent his word to cleanse us. And that's what it should be.
Tonight, we speak for a moment in closing about "The Voice of Worship". The voice of worship is a unifier. The voice of worship is something that makes brothers of absolute strangers. The voice of worship is a platform upon which God can sit and pour out his blessings upon his people. The voice of worship is from a divine invitation that is extended to God's children by God himself. We first see it in Exodus 24. God said to Moses: come up and worship me. When God invites you up, you need to know that you are privileged to receive that invitation. The good news is that God's door is always open. In the Old Testament, it was only at certain times and in certain seasons. But now, because of what Christ has done, all you have to do to access the door is use the name of Jesus, and instantly you're in the throne room of grace.
So if this voice of worship is a unifier, then the voice of worship should have one focus. And that focus is Jesus Christ. If you're singing songs that don't glorify Christ, him crucified, him risen, and the work he's doing in your life, it might be great music, but it's not worship. So the voice of worship is by God's invitation. The invitation includes singing. Psalm 95:1: o come let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Singing is simply putting God's truth to music. That's what worship is, when you take the truth of God's word and you put it to music. That's why people say, pastor Matt, what kind of music do you like? Do you like old hymns? Do you like modern praise? And the answer is, yes, both, and all.
I don't qualify music by the currentness of the genre. I qualify music by the content of the message. People say, well, I only like the new stuff. They say, I only like, "I am a friend of God". I say, well that's a good song. I dig it. Because the Bible says that Abraham was a friend of God, so there's that thought in the Bible. We put that truth to music: it qualifies as praise. But why don't you like the old stuff? Oh, it just didn't have the same meaning. "What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and grieves to bear". Because of the date on our driver's license, we can be a friend of God, but we can't have a friend in Jesus or vice versa? Not only does worship include singing, but when you read the verse in Psalm 95:1, it says: come before the Lord with singing. To the rock of our salvation.
There are times when we're in service, and somebody just lets one out, "Hallelujah"! And you always see about five or six people just, hah. They pull out their little dabbers of oil, and they're like, rebuke you. It's okay to express with enthusiasm what God has done in your life. Not only does worship include a shout, but worship is something that should elevate your mood joyfully. How many of you've ever been in a room that was very serious, and all of a sudden laughter broke out, and the mood in the room was elevated? Whenever we get in God's presence, our mood should be elevated. And sometimes you need to express yourself in that environment.
Psalm 95:3 through 5, it says: great is our God and the great king above all Gods. In his hands are the deep places of the earth, the heights of the hills. The seas are his. He made them. He formed the dry ground. And for several verses, Psalm 95 lists why you worship God with enthusiasm. Isaiah asked this question. He said: who can you find like God? You can't find anything on earth to compare him to. Nothing should demand your excitement any more than he does. I always think it's funny. And don't get me wrong: I'm looking forward to having great guests here at cornerstone. But if I told you, next Sunday, we're going to have Tim Tebow, "Whew! Tebow, Tebow, Tebow, Tebow"! Be wearing John 3:16 patches, doing the bend. And that's great. I love the fact that Tim Tebow is using the platform of sports to make a difference for the kingdom.
That's marvelous. But I think to myself what Isaiah said, "Who can you find on earth that's like God in heaven"? And every Sunday when you come, it doesn't matter if it's Tim Tebow, or if it's John Hagee, or if it's Jentezen Franklin, or if it's anybody else you really, really like. Each and every Sunday, Jesus said, I'll meet you right there. And we ought to walk in going, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! Sometimes worship involves not only the invitation to sing, but involves the invitation to move. Huh! What did he say? Hoye so pora Mexicana. I like that. Uh-hum. I'm all about it. Exodus 15:20 and 21, Miriam, the prophetess, when she saw what God did to Egypt, the sister of Aaron, the Bible says: she grabbed the tambourine in her hand, and all of the women, and all of their tambourines with dancing, sang unto the Lord: that he has triumphed gloriously.
The horse and the rider have been thrown into the sea. They had just seen God do such a miraculous thing that they simply couldn't stand still: they had to move. King David, whenever the ark was brought back into the city of God, it was something that caused move. Why? Because he was a leader. And every leader wants to know that they're going to succeed. And David knew what the ark meant to the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness. He knew what it meant to those who had processed it in generations past. And when he saw God's ark coming back into God's city, he knew that it was a guarantee that God was with him. And if God was with him, no one could stand against him. And when the idea that he was going to be guaranteed success came over him, the Bible says that he started to dance to the point that the boy's clothes fell off.
Now if you do that here, you will be tazed. We're just going to add to the move. It's going to be real short. You're going to be like this, and then you're going to hit the ground. But here's the thing: when David had this genuine expression of praise, his wife, Michal, was sitting up in a window, and she judged him. She looked down on him, and she said, are you going to defile yourself in front of others like that? And God looked down at her and said, I'm cursing you today. I'm closing your womb. When you see someone else praise, you let those who are in authority decide whether they're in line our out of line. But don't you judge them on your own, because the consequence is too severe.
You say, how do you know that? You don't know where they've come from. You don't know what they've been through. You don't know what God's been moving in their life in that moment. You don't know if you're interrupting a private conversation between them and the Almighty. And if he's anything like my dad, he doesn't like to be interrupted. Michal judged David, and God cursed her. You let them express themselves, and you let God sort it out. The alabaster box, the night it was broken, the spiritual people in the room, said, look what she could have done with that money. And Jesus said: she was forgiven much and she loves much. He let the spiritual people know, you don't know where she was when I found her. And she loves me because I have cleansed her. Not only does it involve an invitation to dance: it involves an invitation to bow.
Psalm 95: "O, come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our God, our maker. For he is God and we are the sheep of his pastures. And today, if we will hear his voice...", that's what Psalm 95:7 says, "If we will hear his voice". Say that with me, if we will hear his voice. His voice is speaking. The question is: are we listening? And the point I'm making with all of these invitations, to move, to shout, to sing, to dance, to be silent, to sit still, to do all of these things is to say that worship includes a myriad of emotions. All of them are fine as long as all of them are found in the Bible. Snake handling, strychnine drinking, not in there: don't try it.
If you do, don't do it here. You'll be past tazed: you'll be shot. If you survive, you'll be shot again. But regardless of what God prompts you to do in his presence, the thing that we have got to overcome in our own lives is that worship is not about us: it's about him. It's not about our preference. It's not about our personal feelings. If God asks us to wash our hands with the water of his word, what an easy task considering the price he paid for us to be redeemed. If God moves in such a way that the joy of the Lord floods the house, who are we to resist what he's pouring out? If God humbles our hearts and gets us quiet and still, why not sit silent while the king is in our presence?
You see if you went over to my Father's house and took his invitation to dinner, I would assume, especially if you wanted to be invited back, that you wouldn't just walk in and do what made you comfortable: you would walk in and do what he invited you to do. Come sit down on my couch. Now "Sit down on my couch" doesn't mean take off your dirty boots and put your feet on my table. It means make yourself at home. Would you like to go sit down and eat? Would you like some dessert? And then eventually, he's going to say, "Would you like to go home"? But the point is the same way you accept and invitation from someone that you respect on this earth, we should have the same amount of respect for God who is in heaven, and say:
God, I'm going to prepare myself to accept your invitation. And when I get the chance, and I'm going to your house, I'm going to walk in that room ready to receive whatever it is you have for me to receive, do whatever it is you ask me to do, and spend whatever kind of time you want me to spend in your presence. I'm not coming with my expectations, Lord. I'm not expecting to have a run away shout fest, and I'm not expecting to lay prostrate on the floor. I'm expecting to stand in the midst of your sanctuary to feel your holy presence all around me, and simply say, Lord, have your way.
When you, as an individual, get into a body like that, you have accepted the invitation of God Almighty, and you are worshiping with spirit and truth. Your hand are ready to receive. And God pours his spirit out. Would you stand to your feet?
Father, we recognize that this is your house, and we are in your presence. We know that in your presence is the fullness of joy. We bless you, Lord, because you are good and your mercy endures forever. We thank you, father, because you are enthroned upon the praises of your people. And as we end this service tonight, we've heard the Word of God. Help us to cleanse our hands, cleanse our hearts, and allow our minds to receive your truth: that we might be a united body one generation to the next: that our hearts would be melted together by the fire of God's Holy Spirit: and that you would pour out your blessings in our lives regardless of what those needs may be, because your word has said that where there is unity, you'll command a blessing. We ask this, in Jesus' name.