Worship Matters (Part 1)

A meditation that I am going to base on the Book of Acts chapter 16. We are going to skip because I told the musicians and singers that we were going to make this service a meditation on Praise, on Adoration. So since we had them leading us in adoration, let's also take a moment to meditate on the importance, the role of praise, of adoration in the life of God's people.

We could title this sermon 'Worship Matters'. Worship matters. Say everyone: "adoration", Ah! No, no, but that didn't eat enough bananas this morning. "Worship matters." Another way of saying is 'worship is important.' But let's go to the Book of Acts Chapter 16, as I say, starting there with Verse 16 itself. We have a passage here - what I'm doing is going forward and then go back another time.

But it seemed to me that we could extract a passage from the Book of Acts itself to underpin the importance of worship since we are studying this Book every Sunday that we can. In chapter 16 verse 16 we are told the well-known story of Paul and Silas imprisoned in Philippi. It says here that, Luke is actually recounting, he says: "It happened that while we were going to prayer -that's Paul, Silas and his companion- a girl who had a spirit of divination met us -an evil spirit, she was demon possessed and that Spirit gave him the ability to guess things.

Do you know that the devil works miracles too? But they are devilish and destructive miracles. "Which gave their masters great profit by guessing", they had it as a traveling show. "And it was following Paul and us, calling out: 'these men are servants of the Most High God who announce to you the way of salvation.' How odd! The devil recognizing that these people... Do you know that the devil knows that God is God? The devil knows that Jesus Christ is Lord but he does not convert because he does not have the grace of God.

There are so many people too. They know all these things but they are not converted either. I don't know what spirit is animating them. We see this idea here, right? This woman ironically recognized something in them. He had a divining spirit. The very spirit that was in her, evil, gave her the ability to understand that these men represented the Most High God. But since it came from an unclean mouth, an unclean spirit, this was offensive to the Spirit of God.

That is why Paul says that she did this for many days. "More displeasing to Paul - because he understood that it came from that unclean spirit - he turned and said: 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her' and the spirit came out at that very hour. But when their masters saw that the hope of their profit had come out, they arrested Pablo and Silas and brought them to the forum before the authorities." They filed a lawsuit against poor Pablo because the circus had to be closed.

"And presenting them to the magistrates, they said: 'These men, being Jews, disturb our city and teach customs that it is not lawful for us to receive or do, since we are Romans.' And the people crowded against them". This was the justification they gave: that they are teaching us bad customs that as Romans we should not practice. the magistrates tearing their clothes ordered to flog them with rods"

“After having flogged them a lot, they threw them into jail, ordering the jailer to keep them safe. Who, having received this command, put them in the innermost dungeon and secured their feet in the stocks". He chained them, in other words, and put them in solitude. "But at midnight, Paul and Silas praying", what did they do? They complained to God: 'How do you do that, Lord? We are your servants. We have worked so hard for you! That's how you treat us.'

What do we often do when we go through trials, right? We stop going to church, we stop fasting, we stop tithing, we don't visit the sick, we give the Pastor a bad face. Because how do you allow me to go through this situation? Why did you allow the woman to leave me? Why did they fire me from work? If I am your servant, if I am giving my tithes, if I am serving in the cell, right? But glory to God when instead of complaining we decide to worship the Lord and give Glory to the Lord.

We say: Father, even if I die, I will continue serving you because You are my potion and You are my Everything and in the Kingdom of Heaven I will have everything I lack here on Earth. "Then when Paul and Silas were praying, they sang hymns to God" and what happened? The prisoners heard them. When you give Glory to the Lord in the midst of your trials, do you know how many people are watching to see what you are going to do? to curse God or if he is going to serve the Lord? Many people are looking to see if this is a landlubber only or if he serves God despite the test right?

Do you know that you testify? Even if you don't know there are many people around you watching to see how you are going to behave and what you are going to do in the test. Remember that always. “And the prisoners heard them. Then suddenly a great earthquake occurred in such a way that the foundations of the prison were shaken and instantly all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were released. Waking up the jailer and seeing the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had fled.”

"But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying: 'Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.' He then, asking for light, rushed inside and trembling prostrated himself. Imagine the jailer who had ordered them to be flogged and chained fell at the feet of Paul and Silas. "And taking them out he said to them: 'Gentlemen, what must I do to be saved?' They said: 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You and your house." Glory to the Lord. That promise is for you also this morning. "And they narrated the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house."

"And he, taking them at that same hour of the night, washed their wounds and immediately he and all his family were baptized." See why I call this sermon 'Worship Matters'? "And taking them to his house, he set the table for them and rejoiced with all his house that they had believed God." What a beautiful passage, isn't it? Worship is serious and that worship produces concrete results, it changes things, it changes life situations.

If we come from a Catholic background and I say this with all due respect, congregational worship probably doesn't have much meaning to us because it's not the custom. In the Catholic rite, the priest officiates and is the celebrant, also of the entire ceremony. He is up there officiating and the people are there looking at this chosen being, having an intimacy with God there and leading. The others then witness that.

That has changed a bit over time and now in the most modern reforms of the Catholic Church, because sometimes even a chorus is sung here and there. And if they are charismatic, well, they seem Pentecostal sometimes too. Because they have evolved, they have had to evolve. Imagine the competition. So they've changed and modernized a bit and they even sing one of our choruses, too. Sometimes you go to one of those meetings and you think you are in a Pentecostal meeting.

And it's OK. Imitation is the best way to praise one. So that has changed, but it's usually been like that, right? So we sometimes come from that background and we are not used to it. So we say, why do these evangelicals worship so much and sing so much? Why waste time? Why doesn't the Pastor come in and preach that blessed sermon and we'll go home? They do not have the custom of adoration and that is why perhaps many do not understand that we take so much time.

Even in the traditional gospel, the traditional evangelical does not give it a role... gives it a more important role, yes, but still quite limited, right? Two hymns there, two choruses that have been soaked once and everything is over, the sermon and everyone to go home, to go outside. No? Because what matters is the sermon, praise is a prelude, like a preparation. And everything is done very quickly. Twenty minutes, fifteen minutes for praise but there is nothing like that attention and that emphasis of praise and adoration.

Prayer, as I say, was given in the past as a prelude to preaching, as the culmination of the service. Everything pointed towards worship. Only with the Pentecostal movement at the beginning of the twentieth century did worship regain that importance that it had lost. Even as the traditional evangelical say after Martin Luther's Reformation, worship never had the same role. By the way I tell you, an advertisement, not paid here. I am now working for the publication of a second book on the life of Josaphat.

And I think it will be a great blessing. I put it there in your sensitivity. Pray for this, brothers. And Jehoshaphat's life exemplifies that very much: the importance of worship. The conclusion of the account of the life of Jehoshaphat has a wonderful chapter on praise and we see there the central importance of this aspect of things. When the Spirit is moving, when there is the aspect of worship, the Holy Spirit, rather, has a role, has a central and essential role.

The Bible reminds us of that continually. Worship regained its importance when the Pentecostal movement re-entered the church. So we can conclude that where the movement of the Spirit is, there is a recognition of the importance of worship. That is why with the Pentecostal movement, then, the recognition of the importance of worship enters again. Although as I say, that has been there latent from the Old Testament to the New Testament and at all times it has been there latent.

But when there is the moving of the Spirit there is a recognition of the importance of worship. Why is this? Why is there such a confluence between the movement of the Spirit and an awareness of the importance of worship? And it is that when the importance of the Holy Spirit and the gifts is recognized, when it is recognized that the Holy Spirit is important, the energy, the essence of the Holy Spirit is important, that the gifts of the Spirit: prophecy, anointing, baptism of the Spirit Holy, word of revelation, healings, the miracles that are required for the needs of the people of God.

Where there is that recognition of the importance of the Spirit, there is also a recognition of the importance of worshiping the Lord as a platform for the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship facilitates and makes possible, enables, the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. Any good Pentecostal with a stamped card can tell you that worship is something that facilitates and makes possible the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. When the importance of the Spirit is recognized then things become a little more complex.

It is known that you cannot depend on the formality and the rite and the program for that manifestation to take place. People come to worship not just to fulfill an assignment to sing and worship God. No, it is known that worship is not only upwards but also to the sides. It is known, what is more, that it is also to the sides, downwards, towards hell. Worship is dynamic, it goes up and down and it goes sideways as well. Now when you know that things get a little more complex. Because then we are looking for how we can motivate ourselves to enter into that posture, into that state that makes the manifestation of God's power possible.

It is known that you cannot depend only on the program. We cannot just come fill three, four or five points there that we have and go home. No! There is a mission, there is a purpose, there is a plan, there is a goal to be achieved. It is necessary to break like the woman who breaks water, so a congregation has to break water and give birth to the presence of God's move. Wow! How cute that came out! Give glory to the Lord. Amen. In other words, it's not just the program, actually we are responsible for breaking the bubble and for the essence to emerge. Wow! I'm becoming a poet this morning. I don't know what's going on here.

But look, the example of the woman with the alabaster vase occurred to me. What does she do? She has to break the glass so that the perfume comes out and fills the whole house. A pencil, Meche, please write that down for me, quick. Because I have to publish a sermon about it. When she breaks, the perfume is inside the glass, it is closed and so many times there is the presence of God. When we arrive here with problems, ailments – my back hurts – that the woman is giving me problems at home, that she doesn't cook the way I want, etc. A lot of things, right?

We arrived here, we are closed, closed tight as the walls of Jericho. And we have to warm up engines. When we begin to praise the Lord, when the prayer begins to flow, when the word sounds, the warmth of the brothers begins to warm us, we forget all that. And then we become aware that there is something more than just my problem. Like that song said too right? There is something more than my pains, there is something more than my trials. There is the God who is the one who controls my whole life and who is actually going to lead me to victory despite my trials and my struggles.

As there is a process that occurs. The glass has to be broken, it has to be broken, we have to break ourselves. That is why it is so important that when you come to the house of God, look, do not depend on the Pastor to take you to the presence of God. You are responsible. Do not depend on the one who leads the praise here or on the musicians, there is a job that you have to do. Sluggard! Put your batteries and praise the Lord too. Amen? Glory to God. Each of us has to make an effort. We are not puppets there that whoever is up here is going to manipulate us and take us here or there. No!

The Holy Spirit. That is why, brothers, I say to you: Please, open your mouth. Even if you go out of tune, don't worry, when you get there it's in stereo. When he gets to Heaven, there he hears himself as if he were Pavarotti singing. And if you are afraid that the person next to you will hear you, sing softly but sing, even if it is. Please! bless me You don't know how it hurts me when I look from up here and see one of you there flattened or like you're catatonic while other brothers next to you are adoring the Lord. No! Open your mouth and praise the Lord. He deserves all praise and all glory. Hallelujah.

Men are the ones who suffer the most from this, brothers. We don't sing or get killed, listen to me. Because they didn't teach us when we were children, it was taught that many men have an idea that singing is for women. Lord rebuke the devil. That is for every human being. Listen to me, when you sing, something inside you breaks too. You're going to get more romantic with your wife, too, brother. I assure. Singing is tremendous therapy. Let that creativity flow, that life within you. Open your mouth and worship the Lord. Exercise that quality that perhaps as a child you were not taught was there.

Open your mouth and worship the Lord and don't depend on those up here. No! Because it is that when we need through praise the barriers are broken. It is not a coincidence that in this passage the chains were broken because worship breaks the chains. Adoration breaks the confinement that is in us many times, depression, anxiety, fear, anguish, many things that the devil wants us to focus on him. In the problem, the giant difficulties, the noise of the lion. God says: 'No! focus on me Adore me, glorify me, mention me. And you are going to become aware that there is a more powerful cowboy in Dutch city called Jehovah of hosts.

And He will give you victory. It is important that we adore and that we collectively release that blessing that God… we must break the alabaster glass. I already got that stuck there. When you break the glass that is you and you adore the Lord; when a congregation breaks the glass collectively the perfume can flow and fill the whole house. And it is what happens, when the adoration is flowing there is a breath that fills the place. Have you sometimes come at 9? It is the most difficult time. It's like we're there, it's like a fifty-car train wanting to start moving.

Many people are still with the sheets attached. Psychologically they took them off, they tore them off but the sheets were thrown over them when they got into the car and they still have them on in their minds. So it's difficult but what happens many times? As we already began to adore the Lord and the Spirit begins to flow and a chorus as if it stuck to us and as one feels there, now, this is where this broke and there praise flows. The prayer, the adoration, the cry, the song, things happen. People are blessed, they come forward and there is a mess in the service and one feels: Ah! The alabaster glass broke and the breath filled the whole house. Amen.

Because? Because we did our part. We worship the Lord and that is why it is so important that a church that loves the Spirit and knows that the Spirit is important takes time to worship the Lord. If you are new to the things of God and you wonder why the church takes so much time to praise and sing? That's why. It's not just because we're abusers and that we like to pass… No, no. There is a purpose, there is a reason. Because if we don't understand the theology behind the praise we're just going to be either upset or impatient or mechanically singing and none of those behind what has to be done.

God's people need to be collectively convinced that worship matters, that it is fulfilling a purpose. Many times when we are worshiping the Lord there are people who are receiving without realizing it or are crying. There are new people coming to church and perhaps the sermon doesn't reach them. But a song breaks her heart and tears flow and there is healing. There is a therapy. It is given, brothers. Sometimes you don't even have to preach the evangelistic sermon, people are already prepared to come and receive Christ.

It reaches directly, music is something that reaches directly to the soul and spirit and does absolutely powerful things, so it is important that we always cultivate the spirit of praise. A congregation that moves in the Spirit knows that the program cannot be depended on but that each one is responsible. That's my point here, isn't it? We must take time to lower the presence of the Spirit, activate it and prepare ourselves to feel it and to manifest it.

Praise unleashes and arouses, raises the presence of the Spirit. When we sing: "You inhabit the praise of your people crowned with power. Angels around sing praise with us. Glory..." What happens there, Brothers? Look, you inhabit –he says- the praise of your people. Do you know where that chorus comes from? Psalm 22 verse 3. There it is, it says: "But You are holy, You who dwell among the praises of Israel." He dwells among the praises of Israel. How nice! It doesn't even say: 'He dwells in...' but 'among the praises'. I think so. When we are praising the Lord, look, the Holy Spirit is among you.

The spirit of God is moving among the chairs, it is moving among the people passing up here, it is moving among the musicians, it is moving in the holy place, up there on the third floor among the children. The Lord dwells among the praises of his people. He lives in your house when you are praising the Lord, when you are going through a difficult problem instead of complaining you throw adoration to the Lord, drinking your tears you adore the Lord.

When you arrive at your house that is cold on a winter day and instead of turning on the television full of violence and problems, you put on a cassette to praise the Lord and fill your space. In your car, when you're on that stopper, instead of complaining and cursing Boston, you turn on praise and get saturated with the presence of God, right? The famous chorus: “When the Lord's people praise God, things happen. There is healing, liberation, the presence of the Lord is felt. Hallelujah". When the Lord's people praise God.

When the people of God have recognized that idea through the centuries, that praise unleashes. It loosens us and it loosens the moving of the Holy Spirit as well and I might say, by the way, it binds the devil and it binds the demons. Because demons flee where there is adoration, where there is praise. So, brothers, I am going to leave it here because there are many things that we could add this morning. But we are going to adore God, also through the Lord's Supper this morning.

I ask you to prepare your heart, but please, let us acknowledge this. I will have time after to continue this passage later. But this morning I want you to always remember that praise matters, that you matter before God, that your individual worship is important. Don't get lost in the crowd. Do not recline from the adoration of others in the service. God wants to hear your voice, God wants to hear your praise specifically. The Lord has the ability to isolate your worship from all the other praise that is being raised in a service.

The Lord Jesus Christ was able to isolate the desperate and passionate touch of the woman with the flow of blood in the crowd. The disciples said: “Lord, but if everyone touches you. Everyone is pushing you” and He said, “No. Someone touched me." And you know what? Many times it is your worship that God is looking for to touch his heart. It is your praise that he wants to hear. I beg you in the name... I believe that today's message for your life is that. It is more instead of saying praise matters I am going to say "Your praise matters".

Praise the Lord. Your adoration, your praise is important. God is saying to you this morning: 'My son, my daughter, do not skimp. Do not be skimpy in your adoration for me. I want to listen to you. I want to hear your voice. I want to hear your adoration, I want you to live your life adoring me. I say to the young people who are here this morning: Young people worship the Lord. Worship God. I know that many times for a young person is kind of hard to open your mouth and I know that sometimes it's difficult because we were singing in Spanish.

But you know, it's a great way to get in touch with your culture as well and it'll be wonderful as you worship with us as well. We want to hear your voice. We want to see you praise the Lord as well so I hear you young man, young woman if you are here this morning. Worship God. God wants to hear your voice. Don't be passive, don't just hang there. No, open your mouth, worship the Lord. In English or in Spanish, I mean, learn both. Worship God; don't be so cool that you can't worship God. Actually, worshiping God is the coolest thing that you can ever do in your life. Esta bien? So, break your cried and break your coolness if you will and worship God and feel the Glory.

Young, old, man, woman, new people, church visitor, person who is beginning in the ways of the Lord God tells you this morning “Your praise is very important to me. Do not spare me your adoration and your praise because I want to do great things through that adoration. I want to change that situation. I want to break chains, I want to renew your mind. Praise me". Glory in the name of the Lord. Thank you Father. We adore you, we bless you this morning.

Father we want to worship, we want a congregation that worships, Father. We want a worshiping people, we want a people who enjoy praise, Lord. We want a people burning with the desire to adore you and declare your glory. Oh Lord! that through these brief words the Spirit of praise in this church sinks deeper into us, Lord. Take deeper roots, may your people be impacted, Father, by a consciousness of worshiping you. I ask that the chains that prevent worshiping you be broken, Lord.

May inhibitions be broken, Father. May the spirit of fear be broken and may your people, when they come to your house, Lord, celebrate a night of love with you, Father, to have deep intimacy with your spirit, Lord. There is in us desires to adore you, Lord, no matter where we are going, no matter what our situation is, Lord. May the name of Jesus always need in us to be adored and exalted. Be glorified this morning, Father. Be the name of Jesus glorified this morning, Father. Give glory to the name of the Lord.