Authentic Worship-A Sunday Morning Special

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I'm going to throw in some "sweet heart" photos this month.

To be experiencing authentic worship daily is a personal prayer request of mine this year.  It's place you have to fight for in your mind and there is a real enemy who will do everything possible to steal it from you using his tactics of distraction, worry, fatigue, bitterness, and doubt.

I don't usually write on Sunday's but I wanted to share these points from an article I read on authentic worship and I've already stopped and prayed for each of  you to come before the Lord with a pure and worshipful heart this morning.  Being in worship before the Lord is the best place we will be all week!

From Authentic Worship by John Piper

There is not true worship where the heart is far from God.  But the heart’s approach to God happens in the quickening of our feelings for God. Therefore, where feelings are dead, so is worship.

What are these feelings that make the outward acts of worship authentic? What are the feelings towards God that turn learned forms into genuine worship…Some of the highest worship begins with the feelings of brokenness and contrition and grief for our sin.


The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51:17


I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin. Psalm 38:18


Mingled with the feeling of genuine contrition is the feeling of longing or desire. 


As a hart longs for the flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1,2   


Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.       Psalm 73:25,26


Also mingled with our sense of sin and our longing for his mercy is the feeling of fear and awe before the holiness and magnitude of God. 


I will worship toward thy holy temple in the fear of thee. Psalm 5:7 


Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Psalm 33:8


 And as he approaches, forgiving all our iniquity, crowning us with honor, satisfying us with good our hearts well up with the feeling of gratitude. 


Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, and bless his name!  Psalm 100:4  


And mingled with our gratitude are the feelings of joy and hope. 


Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.  Psalm 32:11 


Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.  Psalm 42:5 


These are examples of some of the feelings that come from God and move us to God in genuine worship: contrition, sorrow, longing, desire, fear, awe, gratitude, joy, hope. When these feelings are quickened, the heart is no longer far from God. Worship is no longer lip-service. It is genuine and authentic.


The Song  Here I am to Worship Chris Tomlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaUTv1pXRyU

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