Praise: A Tool for Loving Jesus
Summary
The sermon focuses on worship as a tool for loving Jesus and experiencing His presence. The speaker emphasizes that worship is not just a nice melody or lyric, but an atmosphere that is created, and a natural response to the love for Jesus. The biblical story of the dedication of the temple is used as an example of how God's presence filled the house when worship was sung as one. The speaker encourages listeners to reflect on their own love for Jesus, whether worship has become a habit, and whether it is genuine. The message is a challenge to return to the first love for Jesus and let worship be a tool for deeper fellowship with Him, so that God's holiness can fill us.
Listen to the sermon
Key verses
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150:6
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:7
The trumpeters and singers joined their voices in praise to the Lord with one voice. Rising before the altar with cymbals, harps and trumpets, they praised the Lord and thanked him, saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14
Scripture quotations translated from Bibel 2011 © Bibelselskapet.
Discussion questions
- 1.How can worship be more than just a song for you in your daily life?
- 2.In what ways might your worship have become a habit, and how can you renew it to be a more genuine expression of your love for Jesus?
- 3.How can you actively seek God's presence through worship, especially when you feel distant from Him or your first love?
- 4.What does it mean to you that God's holiness can fill you personally, not just a place, as in the new covenant?