Aspects of a True Worshipper

I've been in the Lord now 38 years and Counting and the thing that hooked me as a Jewish guy in well started out in Cleveland Ohio originally from Boston Massachusetts but I I was singing at the temple part of the temple choir nice Jewish boy the Cantor was my voice teacher working working on an undergraduate degree in music education and I went to church with a girl I figured out as a young Jewish guy that the pretty girls went to church so when a pretty girl invited me to church I went 22 years old at the time so it was a natural response and what I what I found when I went to church wasn't what I was expecting but it was a setup I found that the Lord had a hook that he had placed in me and was not going to be satisfied until he had reeled me into the boat a couple years went by I moved to Italy and studied music and came back again and that first experience with God had kind of faded by then until another pretty girl invited me of church and I I felt after a while that I had a t-shirt that said any pretty girl please invite me to church and so sure enough this pretty girl invited me to church and again I found another setup the first time I went years before the whole message the whole service was set up just to speak to me it absolutely blew me away I never expected anything that personal that intimate in a place like that well years past as I said I went back again I'm expecting you know that there's three three numbers up on the wall you open up a book you turn the page you sing all 18 verses or whatever they have in there it's boring to do and the service started with a guy who got up on a stool played his guitar the atmosphere in the whole place changed and I didn't know what to do with myself I felt trapped again but in a nice way all of a sudden everything around me blurs the atmosphere changes I'm it's like I'm hearing the voice of God I don't know what that is but I'm hearing for myself and a couple weeks later I prayed to receive the Lord praise and worship I I say that to say this praise and worship to me obviously my life has become so precious to me because of this there's more but because of this one fact that he inhabits the praises of his people and as we offer up to him our sounds our voices our hearts its provokes you know remember the woman with the issue of blood she presses through a crowd there's all kinds of commotion going on and and hundreds maybe thousands are pressing pressing in on Yeshua and in the midst of that he turns around and he says to his disciples who touched me and you know one of the disciples says come on Lord there everybody's touching you everybody is touching you there's another one of those English turn everybody is touching while they can't but know somebody by faith pressed through the crowd and took a hold because they were expecting to meet with God that's what I love about praise and worship creates an atmosphere where we are we are pulling that through the crowd through all the noise where we're pulling on the hem of His garment Lord I I need you I just I just need to touch you today I want to be I want to be close enough face-to-face like man speaks to his brother that statement that that Torah makes about Moses that God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend come on isn't that you know in Exodus 33 that is oh that's so provoking sometimes you know I'll read that and again I'll say well what am i Lord chopped liver I come on give me give me that face to face you know and sometimes you'll say you're just not ready you're just not ready for what you're asking for but praise and worship and and faithfulness intimacy is for me what it's all about in fact no we'll skip that because we don't have time I was going to start somewhere else but look with me in Genesis 22 and verse 1 we were we were looking this morning Asher was talking about faithfulness out of Luke and and just great stuff from him and I thought I'd pick that up right here faithfulness in being a worshiper in John chapter 4 I was gonna go there but you know it's oh well I'll just refer to it the story of the woman at the well and and Yeshua reveals himself to her oh you're a prophet well yeah but more than that he said a time is coming and has now come when those who worship the father will worship Him in spirit and in truth these are the kinds of worshipers that the father is seeking so I've said my entire life Lord this is what I want to be I want to be what you're looking for I want you know what says to me that when God is looking for something he doesn't find it under every rock you know if you're going crawfish hunting down himself well I'm from Florida now and kids will go looking for crayfish they look like tiny lobsters you know they got little tiny pinchers on them they're fast they're fun to catch but I don't know some people like to eat them I like to catch them and let him go but you look under a lot of rocks to find one and it seems to me that that's what a worshipper is for God when he's looking for him but it's not under every Rock every seat this is not have a worshiper sitting on it they might be in the meeting but there is something special about what God calls a worshiper that may not exactly be what we think of when we think of a worshiper in fact let me let me ask you what do you think of no I'm gonna get good answers from all of you I know that because this is a tough crowd but what do you think of when you think of a worshiper what does it mean to be a worshiper if God is looking for worshipers and that's obviously what you want to be what do you have to be in order to be a worshiper of God sorry abandoned to yourself as a worshiper good I'm there's gonna be a lot of good answer so come on give me a few more don't be afraid one answer abandoned to yourself a passion for God it's good a living sacrifice see I told you there's gonna be a lot of good answers yeah a personal relationship right connect with God a worshiper of God what else all right further for the sake of time we'll go with those for now there's there's some more and get your get your pain out okay so in Genesis chapter 22 when when I was saying Lord after reading John chapter 4 that's what I want I want to be a worshipper in spirit and in truth he said well let me take you over here and show you what it means and then afterwards you can tell me if this is still what you want alright so follow me here Genesis chapter 22 verse 1 right out of the chute it says some time later sorry I can't read it for you in Hebrew I'll just have to stick with Good Old English some time later God tested Abraham whoa yes that is not one of the verses I have up on my refrigerator God tested Abraham because he said to me look if he want to be a worshiper in spirit and truth I'm gonna test you now if you really want to be a worshiper you can say okay David said it test me Oh Lord and see if there be any wicked way in me shake it up Lord there's a popular song in the West now shake it off I'm sure you all know it come on don't tell me you're not listening to what is a Katy Perry or Katy did or whatever whatever her name is it's a very popular song now shake it off shake it off shake it off I don't know what she's talking about but the chorus is shake it off shake it off so there's something about a test how many of you enjoy a test I didn't think so I don't either I was a student for many years I was a teacher for a couple of years and when it came test day the thing what do you hate most of all pop quizzes right all right put your books away take out a sheet of paper oh I should have read those chapters last night because the pop quiz is all about what I should have done but then I didn't do it so you get to look like a dummy for that for that day but testing if you want to be a worshipper if you want to be found faithful then God says I'm gonna test you why testing is not for him testing is for you testing is for me it gives us kind of a where am I in this whole thing Lord test me and see if there be anything in me shaking in life you know why shaking is good we don't like it but it's good because it gets all the other false stuff off of us that we might be depending on and then when the when the heat comes down real hard if we're holding on to something that's not true what happens the foundation falls out and you get people falling away you get people who are disappointed you you find out that friendships weren't what they what you thought they were so testing is good if you're a real worshiper if you are a faithful person you learn to enjoy the tests you learn to enjoy the shaking because it reveals to you what is true and what's false so if you want to be a worshipper if you want to be faithful then expect to be tested but also don't resist the tests and be able to discern between tests and temptations right because James tells us or Jacob says that God doesn't tempt anyone but each one is tempted by their own evil desires and they're dragged away and enticed right so first of all expect to be tested second of all be able to discern when you're being tested by God or you're being tempted by the enemy the test is there to elevate you the temptation comes to destroy you okay good all right okay that was part of verse one so he says to him Abraham Abraham here's another aspect of a worshiper a worshiper hears the voice of their father God spoke to Abraham and he says Abraham he calls him by name he named E Here I am he replied here's another aspect of a worshiper so if you want to be a worshiper number one expect to be tested number two discern between testing and temptation one is to elevate you the other is to destroy you number three if you're going to be a worshiper make sure you're hearing the voice of God did you see how much prophecy there was in our meeting this morning someone would say let's pray and eight people grab the microphone and say I'm hearing God say this I'm here it was like we almost don't pray it's like a prophecy time it's been like that forever with my friends here that revive week we go back to 1980 1981 was anybody alive back then really 82 you just you just missed the cut yeah we we go back in our friendships almost 40 years it is amazing to me but it's always been like that we'd get together we begin to worship the atmosphere changes we say let's pray and we wind up I hear the Lord saying this and it's it's an amazing amazing thing and he says to Abraham Abraham a son a worshiper a daughter will hear the father's voice in a stranger's voice they will not follow now Nora Sarah doesn't say that you can't hear the strangers voice it just says you pay no attention in a room I I liken it like this I have two boys they're they're now grown with wives of their own one has produced a grandson for me so I brought him back into the will he's now back in the will because I have an heir and they know my voice they've heard my voice not only obviously on CDs and videos and stuff but they hear my voice at the dinner table they've heard my voice did you finish your homework they heard my voice come here you need to be corrected they know my voice and so we can go to the mall and in the midst of thousands of people I can holler out to them Nathan Joel they immediately turned and and look - where did that come they know my voice in the midst of all of that commotion or if someone else sings one of my songs and they record it and it might be a great recording if I put it on they'll say that's not you well it's the same notes it's the same key it's the same words it's the same everything but that voice is not this voice because they've spent so much time with this voice that all the other voices they might say the same thing same key same song same language but it's not this voice they know their fathers voice you know this is this is the safeguard for us we spend so much time listening to our father's voice you know how many voices there are in the world there's the voice of the enemy there's the voice of our flesh there's the voice of the world but then there's also the voice of our Father and the more time we spend listening to our father's voice we still hear all those other voices but we pay no attention to them do you know that at at a bank they you've probably heard this before when they're training tellers you know the person who stands behind the counter and deals with money all day counts out all those those bills whether the Deutsche marks or a dollar bills or whatever they don't spend any time training those people what a false dollar build a false document feels like they spend all their time with the real thing and so when the false one comes up there it just doesn't feel right it doesn't smell like I mean it looks pretty good you hold it up - mmm what and so this is our safeguard that's why I love worship spend so much time in worship hearing the father's voice worshiping him bowing down and spending time in intimacy that when the false voice comes it's something's something's greeting you know he can be in a meeting and someone's got a word a prophetic word and you're listening is a the Lord says well okay and the more they talked the more your spirits going you know something's scratching me on the inside it's getting uncomfortable mmm no because you know the real thing so when the fake comes you really don't need you don't need to spend your time there okay Wow so sometime later God tested Abraham he said to him Abraham he hears his father's voice and the strange voice he gives no attention here I love this what's Abraham's response what's the response of a worshiper he says Here I am what's that in Hebrew he named II yeah and he named II he named II is more than just Here I am he named E is more when I was raising my sons and I'd speak to him I'd say Nathan and you know the natural response of a young person yeah well in America yeah like what yeah what I said no son this is this is not a coven ental response this is not how a son responds to his father so from early on when I would teach him I'd say Nathan or son he's supposed to turn from what Avery's doing face me and say yes sir yes ah now I know I've got your attention yes sir this is more like yes sir he nene is more like yes sir in the United States a lot of our kids grow up being taught street talk they learn how to respond from their peers rather than being fathered or trained so we have a whole society I grew up in the 50s in the 1950s and the 1960s in a very rebellious generation the Vietnam War is going on and the hippie movement at the same time the Jesus Jesus movement is happening but we were a very rebellious kind of generation we we had the free love thing going on and drugs was coming in to our society through the rock and roll music The Beatles really was responsible for introducing a lot of junk to us in in those years those formative years so now we have a whole society my age that grew up very rebellious we didn't know how to respond we we hated leadership and we wanted to do our own thing so what did it produce in us it didn't produce a generation of worshipers and so when we spoke to one another thank you actually my little pause was not because my voice was tired it's because when I thought of growing up in the 50s and what year it is now I realized I'm older than I thought I was and just for a moment wait a minute in fact this year I just turned the Beatles wrote a song will you still need me will you still feed me when I'm sixty-four boom boom this year I turned 64 so back then that was really old right now it is just getting a second wind baby look out hmm we are tearing it up so he may me as it's not yeah what do you want he nee nee is yes sir in fact my understanding of he nee nee is you have my full attention nothing that is around me distracts me and everything that I have is now available to you he nee nee so when nice when the Lord speaks I often will say to him he nee nee Here I am Here I am now because this thing is a covenant and we have a few minutes let me just show you the other part of that covenant so the Lord speaks Abraham says Here I am he Nene you have my full attention nothing around me is going to distract me and everything that belongs to me is now available to you keep your finger there in Genesis 22 and turn with me over to Isaiah Wow I was only one page off to Isaiah chapter 58 let me just show you this about the word he may me I love this covenant thing don't you it's a two-way street it's not just a matter what can I do for you in fact God doesn't need anything that we have we could go back further but look at verse 8 and following this is Isaiah chapter 58 verse 8 talking about a true fast here but he says your light will break forth like the dawn your healing will quickly appear I love that then your righteousness will go before you and the glory the covered Adonai the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard then you will call an eye the Lord will answer you will cry for help and I will say to you he Namie Here I am you have my full attention I'm not being distracted by Myriad's of angels and all the stuff that's going around and the weird thing in front of me with all the eyes covering me and the ones that are holy holy holy and the angels flying back and forth and all the stuff of heaven because you called to me because you're a worshiper because you're faithful when I speak to you and you say he Nene when you call to me I the Lord will say to you he Nene which includes everything that is within my kingdom is now at your disposal isn't that what you schewe said joint heirs were joint heirs together with him and heir means that anything in the house belongs to you it's not just there for you to see it's there for you to use ooh I love this stuff okay turn back with me to Genesis chapter 22 so if we're gonna be faithful if we're gonna be worshipers in spirit and in truth number one you're gonna be what you're gonna be tested number two what we say good I love people to take notes that means it's important to them just discern between the temptation and a test because the test is there for your what mm-hmm yeah to elevate you to graduate you you want to pass the test so that you can go on to better things right but the temptation is there to yeah pass it up okay and so what did we say number four about a worshipper God speaks to Abraham what did we say about a worshiper yeah that was the one after this right they hear the voice of their father a worshiper hears the voice of their father yes there's a lot of other voices out there and you know they're there you can hear them you just don't pay any attention to them did you ever go to a dog show do you ever go to an obedience show it is amazing the way some of these animals are trained I mean that dog no matter how big or small is so fixated on their owner on their trainer you can you can offer them a t-bone steak you can you can call him you can whistle at them you can dangle and they are like fixed they're sitting there waiting for that command and that's what a worshipper is they are fixed on the author and finisher of their faith they're not being distracted by all the other stuff all the bells and whistles the other voices they are waiting for that voice and that voice alone hmm so here's verse two we've how many verses in this chapter well get through a couple of them then God said to Abraham take your son your only son here's the test take your only son Isaac whom you love isn't that interesting now Abraham has another son at this point doesn't he yeah what's his name smile but God says here to Abraham take your son take your only son what does he mean only son because he's speaking covenant aliy you see in in view of covenant the way God thinks he only has one son the one that God promised him he says take your only son go to the region of Moriah sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you about here comes another aspect of a worshiper you ready early the next morning so what does that say to me about a worshiper they're quick to respond how many times don't raise your hand have you made a promise to God I promise if you'll just uh I cross my heart hope to I know I live I promise and then time goes by time goes by and next thing you know you find that promise on a little piece of paper hidden in your Bible it's like oh I never did that did I I promised I was going to deliver on that when you blessed me that I was going to tithe to that project I'm gonna give that oh I'm gonna I was gonna go and I meant to make that relationship right and mmm one aspect of a worship for a faithful person man or woman is that when they hear the voice of God they're quick to respond it's one of the signs it's one of the signs write it down quick to respond early the next morning Abraham got up he saddled his donkey he took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac when he'd cut enough wood for the burnt offering he set out on the place where God had told him about on the third day here's another aspect of being a worshiper it was three days from the time God spoke to Abraham until he got to the mountain right around here somewhere right before he got to the mountain that God said this is the place he had three days to argue with his own flesh he had three days of talking with his son knowing what's coming he had three days to be impacted by the voice of the enemy the voice of the world the voice of reason if you will to be talked out of Abraham what the heck are you doing this is your promise how many years was it from God making the promise I'm gonna give you a son to this point it's about 36 years we don't know exactly but Isaac is now 18 to 22 years old something like that here and for three days Abraham is walking along with his son who was by now you know I mean he he's on the front of Time magazine he he is the most eligible bachelor in the world he's got the fast Kamel and on the planet you know he works out at the gym every day he only needs natural foods his mother cooks for him he's got servants you know he's got a body he got a bodybuilder he eats all the right dates and figs and it didn't fish no bones I mean this guy is like he's a vision of Messiah isn't he he's born supernaturally according to the Word of God he's the only Son he's being his father is teaching him carefully every day what it means to be a covenant man to hear the voice of God to be a worshiper to respond and where is he learning it from Abraham I mean the first dude to know the one true Living God in this new world amazing and so it says here in verse five excuse me on verse 4 on the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance he said to his servants stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there we will worship and then we will come back to you a couple of things here he says to his servants you all stay here why didn't he take the servants with him he did I mean there's wood to carry there's all the stuff there's the fire why because these guys are outside the Covenant and they have nothing to do with what's about to happen plus they've been serving Isaac probably all of his life and what are they going to do what's their ask lots gonna be when they see this hundred and twenty year old guy Abraham built an altar now they're starting to smell a rat wait a minute there's no lamb here puts puts all the stones then puts the wood on and then binds Isaac's hands and feet and puts him up on top of the altar what do you think these two guys are gonna do who knows maybe try to stop him and so Abraham says to him you have nothing to do you're outside the Covenant you have nothing to do with this y'all stay here with the donkey talk with the donkey for a while maybe he'll sing you a nice song and and we'll be back when we finish so he says we're gonna worship we will worship what's the Hebrew word there anybody know Jaffa we will worship we will worship best of it but the word is shahe he says we're going to worship he's not saying we're going up to sing a bunch of songs even if they were Paul Wilbur songs which probably should have been but no he said he does we're gonna go up there and wave banners and flags and dance around a bit he says we're going to worship so the word shahe the word worship means bow down we are going to bow down we're going to submit ourselves to the Spirit of God to the voice of God we're not going up to do anything else except to do what God has told us to do he says and we're gonna worship and then we will come back to you so somehow in here Abraham knows this son is my promise God has said he's my heir he's also told me to sacrifice him on an altar but I know we're coming back down together whether he's gonna raise him from the dead whether he's gonna intervene Abraham doesn't know he's just a worshiper he's gonna do what he was told to do verse 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son and he himself carried the fire and the knife as the two of them went on together Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham I'm sorry and spoke up and said to his father Abraham ABBA yes my son Abraham replied the fire in the water here Isaac said but where's the lamb for the burnt offering Abraham answered God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son and the two of them went on together there's a lot in there and for the sake of time we're not going to spend any time on that verse 9 when they reached the place God had told him about Abraham built an altar and he arranged the wood on it he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son but mala I don't I the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven Abraham Abraham what's his response he Naini again a covenant response which means you have my full attention I'm not being distracted by anything around me and anything that belongs to me is now available to you it's a covenant response Here I am do not lay a hand on the boy he said do not do anything to him for now I know say that with me for now I know now I know that you truly fear another alternate word for that in English is worship now I know how did God know that Abraham and Isaac who we could go back to as a worshiper what was known now that wasn't known at the foot of the mountain what was known now on top of the mountain as Abraham raises the knife what's known there that wasn't known at the foot of the mountain that he's a faithful man right that he's an obedient man what's known so worship to me it's not just a song how often do you go into a place and and people are raising their hands and some are kneeling and some are bowing and this banners and that's not necessarily worship according to my Bible these are expressions of the heart for sure but God is working looking for those who worship in spirit as well as in truth and and the truth in the Greek means what you see is what you get those who worship the father in spirit out of their spirit man but those who worship Him in truth is what you see is what you get God is looking for these kinds of worshipers that if you're bowing down on your knees that's really what's in your heart oh I can't tell you how often you know from the from the front you get a great vantage point and I'll see people you know they're in there worshipping kind of they got their hands up then and then I watch them do this like how much longer does how much longer are we gonna do this yeah okay just about 10 more minutes I can hang in there for 10 more minutes you know someone's thinking about what's on the lunch menu or can I get out of here before the Baptist's get to my favorite restaurant or how much longer is this gonna go on or what whatever the myriad of thoughts might be to worship in spirit and in truth as worship worshiping out of the heart but what you see is what you get and so what was different from the bottom of the mountain to Abraham lifting his hand with the knife he'd been told take your son up to a mountain I'll show you and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering and so when Abraham does what he's told Isaac gets up on top of the altar his father binds his hands and feet raises a knife God says calls from heaven he says well test is over you both pass you go on to be Abraham you're gonna go on to be the father of many nations Isaac you get to be second-in-command you know you pass the test you're on to the next to the next thing what was it that was different from the bottom of the mountain to the top they did what they were told and that's what God calls worship in spirit and in truth we can sing and dance all day we can jump around and prophesy and and all the rest great but I don't know that we have really worship the father in spirit and truth until we've done what we were told to do and that's been my goal ever since Asher taught this morning about faithfulness a faithful one if you're faithful in little the Lord says I'll make you a ruler over much if you're faithful with that five dollar bill now I know I can trust you with a five million because to you it's all the same it's seed it's a tool it's just something to be faithful with and so for a lot of years I've asked God to prove my faithfulness by giving me a private jet it hasn't happened yet but I'm still I'm still expecting Lord test me with that private jet mm-hmm amen so I'm hoping that maybe he'll test me with just a small biplane first and then we'll see if we can move on from there - and inter-continental yes yes I won't have any testimonies about exit rows like like pastor Eddie had this morning but I won't need any because I'll have my own seat whoo

Channel: ReviveIsraelTV

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Keywords: Messianic, worship

Id: 4M9bZ9sfcVU

Length: 41min 29sec (2489 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2015