You Must Worship

1. You must worship with Reverence for God’s Mighty Deliverance

• Exodus 15:1-5 emphasizes the Israelites’ response of praise and worship after experiencing God’s miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea.
• They had EXPERIENCED God- and their RESPONSE was REVERENCE
• Reverence: a deep respect, awe, or admiration for someone or something
• honor and deference towards that which is considered sacred or worthy of special esteem
• a feeling of humility and reverence towards a higher power or authority.
• the Israelites sang praises to God in reverence, we should have reverence before God. 
• V1-2 “I will sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! 2 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
• People, in general, are not reverential people. We are somewhat ceremonial at times, but we’ve been indoctrinated to believe that we are special and no one else is, so the idea of showing any sort of reverence we reject. No one is above us. No one but God, but then not even God. 
• Psalm 89:7: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all those around Him.”
• Greatly feared in the assembly of the saints. The assembly of the saints should have some fear
• We’re not an overly formal congregation in the way in which we worship, we try to focus more on the inner parts of our hearts than the outer parts, but it begs the question, are you reverent?
• Do you see the time we spend together as the assembled saints of God as a reverential time?
• I’m not setting some sort of standard here, but asking you, are you reverent?
• Where is your heart, mind, attitude and such as you rise and prepare for assembling?
• What we do here is cosmically important to gather and praise God together. 
• People have dumbed down and removed so much of the pageantry of Christianity that its been reduced to a concert and a pep talk. People do not come, and interact reverentially. 
• We are blessed with an awesome worship team, but they are not here to entertain you
• You should come to church prepared to worship, and while you’re here you should have some reverence for what you’re participating in. This is the time we worship God together. 
• This is why cell phones going off bothers me so much. Late bc of drinks, up and down. 
• How you dress matters- and people say, God doesn’t care about the outward, and that’s true, but he does care about your reverence, and putting on something different changes you
• You realize that something is different than the rest of your life. It’s set apart. 
• “I cant afford it”. If you cant afford a collared shirt but you can afford to go out to coffee, have the internet, cell phone, eat out, buy new stuff, go on vacation, its not your money. Its heart. 
• Malachi 1:6: “A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’”
• How do you create a reverent heart? You remind yourself of the deliverance that God has brought you through. The times when he has show himself faithful. (I recall in worship)
• Did he save you? What sins have you overcome? What fears and doubts?
• When has he saved you, protected you, saw you through and delivered you?
• I haven’t crossed over on dry land, but he brought me through 2 deployments, saw me through mission trips, sustained me through economic cycles, healed my family, helped me in my marriage, saw me through my parenting, delivered me from my sins and set me free
• So I respect him. I honor him. I am reverent before him because I believe he’s worth it
• He’s not my buddy. He’s my God. He deserves my reverence. I will praise him every time. 
• Reverence is reminding myself that I worship a Holy God and my demeanor should match
  

2. You must worship and recognize of God’s Sovereignty and Power

• We’re talking about worship here. We revere God in our hearts, but with our MOUTHS we declare that he is powerful, sovereign and mighty
• The words we say in our worship matter. 
• Today- ABOUT HIM-And our God is the lion, The Lion of Judah, He’s roaring with power, And fighting our battles
• TO HIM– When evil is rising, You’re rising higher, With power to save, With power to save
• Exodus 15:6-11 magnifies God’s unmatched power and sovereignty over all creation, including His ability to overcome the forces of nature and human enemies.
• God’s sovereignty extends over every aspect of your life nothing is beyond His control.
• When we worship him VERBALLY with REVERENCE- and RECOGNIZE him its WORSHIP
• Recognition: Recognition, on the other hand, involves the acknowledgment or identification of something’s existence, significance, or attributes. It doesn’t necessarily imply a deep emotional response like reverence does. Recognition can be intellectual or perceptual, involving an awareness or understanding of a particular fact, truth, or reality.
• Songs that remind us of God’s faithfulness and power help our mind to focus on his majesty and power. I don’t want to come to church and sing songs to myself, about myself for myself. 
• 1 Chronicles 29:11-12: “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all.”
• What this does is encourages you to trust in God’s power to overcome anything in your life
• We serve an all powerful God and when you’re going through something, its powerful to be reminded and remind yourself that God is God and he will see you through
• This is why weekly worship is so central to our Faith- (mid-week too). It gets you through what you’re going through and prepares you for what you’re going through next. 
• We’ve had a rough week. Friend died, hurts us, family, friends, lots of tears
• But we’re not broken! We’re not giving up! We’re being held by the hand of God
• When you walk with God on a daily basis, the trials of this world don’t break you, you just walk through it with his strength and power. Worship sustains the relationship with God. 
• Jeremiah 32:17: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.”