Burning Heart of Worship
Read 25 - 34 Luke 24… - When I was serving as a discipleship pastor at my first associate position. I spent some time with a friend that was heightened to the presence of the Holy Spirit. He was experimenting with fasting and in his testimony he said that one day, he decided to include reading his Bible and praying during his fasting. And in a moment as he did this, he had testified that it was like God’s presence came upon him and the only way he could explain it was, it was like sticking your mouth to a fire hydrant and then turning it on…
that’s but an ounce of how over whelming this experience of being in God’s presence was. We’re talking about a guy who dint take faith serious before that. Some time had past and January of that year he had invited me to a Bethel training conference. As we walked into this conference I knew the songs they were playing but people were worshiping a little different than what I’ve ever experienced before.
There was a lot more swaying going on. I liked over towards the front of the stage and there were people crying. I looked to another spot and there were people laughing out loud hysterically. There were your typical arm raisers and chair praisers. Those are people that just sit and watch others… Which was me my first night at this event. I went back to my hotel that night frustrated.
Because I didn’t worship. The message was good, the music was edgy and familiar and modern. But as I stood and sat in a room full of people worshipping…I asked myself… Why didn’t my heart burn within me for Christ like it was so evident in the lives of others? It was saddening. The Jesus I’ve said that I love and adore, there was nothing bursting within me that was longing and adoring for Him.
It wasn’t just saddening but it was defeating. I’ve come to worship, and people gather to worship together but the only thing for the first night I got was a huge let down. I was disappointed. And I was defeated and felt alone. At a worship conference. That was supposed to uplift and encourage. And lead others in worship. - I’m sure you’ve dealt with moments like that. Have you ever gone into a worship setting and just didn't feel like raising your hands?
Maybe you looked around and saw others deeply engaged while you felt disconnected Perhaps you questioned if something was wrong with your faith Or wondered why everyone else seemed to "get it" while you were struggling Have you ever gone into a time of prayer in your home, and just got side tracked and ended up endless scrolling through social media? Started with the best intentions to spend time with God.
Found yourself 30 minutes later reading about something completely unrelated. Then what happens? The feelings of guilt begins to settle in about your lack of focus. Or, has there ever been a moment in your life where you were going through a crisis moment, and you found it hard to worship? When the doctor's report wasn't what you hoped for When your relationship fell apart When financial pressure was mounting When loss and grief made praise feel impossible We've all experienced these spiritual dry spells: Times when our hearts feel cold and distant Seasons when worship feels more like a duty than a delight Moments when we wonder if we're the only ones struggling to connect The beauty is, we're not alone in these struggles: Even David, a man after God's own heart, experienced times of spiritual drought The Psalms are filled with honest cries of "Where are you, God?” The disciples themselves sometimes struggled to stay awake during prayer These moments of disconnection are part of our shared human experience: They don't define our faith They don't determine our value to God They're often the very moments that prepare us for deeper connection or a deeper life of abiding in Christ.
- “That's good news, we're not the first people to struggle with this. Luke 24 has 4 events but I want to focus on just one that will help us answer the question, why does not my heart burn within me for worship? Tucked between the Resurrection and Jesus appearing to the disciples, is this interaction that the Bible calls, “the road to Emmaus.” The scene opens with these two men on the road shortly after the crucifixion, lamenting over the death of Jesus and by the time we get to verse 21, we see that they had lost hope.
They had a perspective of what they thought was going to happen and when it didn’t happen to how they wanted it to happen, they were hopeless. Then Jesus appears and walks alongside them, but they don’t recognize him. And Jesus begins a Bible study with them on the road. "One of our greatest battles in our faith—and the key to igniting our hearts for worship—is that we're not always Christ-Centered.
Or to put it simply: Worship runs cold when anything else takes the throne of our hearts." Jesus begins his walking podcast with the two disciples and he calls them in verse 25, “foolish and slow in heart.” Now that’s not very pastor like is it? Can you imagine if I came up along side of you and said, hey, you’re foolish and slow in heart. But there are two things we need to remember…
Foolish means to make poor judgments and slow in heart means you can’t be easily persuaded. And both of these men testified to Jesus that they were in fact foolish and slow in heart. Now How do we know? First the woman of their group came back with the report that the tomb was empty, Now be reminded that that’s a Physical testimony. Then these women not only saw angels but they heard them speak that Jesus is alive, that’s a testimony of the Spiritual and then their hearts leaped with faith declaring Yes, Jesus is Alive.
But then men didn’t believe it…. Because once the woman came back, she did they do? they sent men from their group and look at their testimony in verse 24… Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the woman had said. Their report was only physical.. there was no reports of angels, there were no reports of speaking with angelic beings proclaiming that Jesus is alive…
And so, Jesus calls them foolish… which means they were lacking judgment.. and slow to heart because they were not easily persuaded. What we realized was that these men were practicing self belief. they were trusting their own understanding, their own expectations, their own interpretation of events—rather than trusting in God's word and His promises." So Jesus comes along side of them and he begins reveling to them the old testament Scripture.
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” It’s a beautiful moment… because Jesus was teaching them how to interpret the Bible.. and what was his main point of this on the road Bible study?…He was pointing them to himself. Verse 27: Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
These men were not practicing a Christ-centered life… They had fallen into the trap that we all fall into.. A self centered hope. Have you ever had a moment where you said.. well that didn’t go as expected? Or a moment where you had made all of these plans and you barley accomplished any of them? How may times have we read the Bible but didn’t believe in what it had said?
How many times have we listened to the word of God in church service but it went in one ear and out the other? How many times have we heard that in the end times, the people will be lovers of self, and have itching ears of preference in sermon style and worship style but we fail to understand and believe that we could ever willingly or even unwilling fall into the trap of self pleasing or self centered hope?
And not only that… but think of this… How many times… have we been in the very presence of Christ…. But we ourselves didn’t recognize him? That’s a serious question… Is it possible to be in the presence of Jesus and not even recognize him? Lets take a minute to pause and let that sink in for a moment… I believe so… I believe anyone can come into a church service and not meet Christ because we’re experiencing just what those two men experienced…
they were centered on themselves. When I was at the conference and I wasn’t worshipping. For me it wasn’t the music. It wasn’t the venue… Jesus came to the road I was standing on and he met me at the crossroads of my own heart and held a mirror to my heart and said… Matthew, what are you centered on? I was looking over to that person and asking why are they laughing hysterically.
They were crying, laughing shouting, dancing and I was not… What was I missing? I am a Christian. I am a licscends minister. I love Jesus… I’m a follower… just like those two men were on the road to Emmaus. But Until Jesus met me on my Spiritual road of Emmaus and told me to stop making much of me, and in what I had hoped for…. And center my hope on Him, I find out I couldn’t worship when all I did was center my hope and heart on myself.
- If worship is going to passionately burn within us, we need to ask the very important question, “what am I centered on and am I making much of Jesus in my life? We all need to answer the question…and I hope before we leave here today it will be answered…… “Is my life Christ centered or am I blind too?” We all need to answer this question before we leave here today: "Is my life Christ-centered, or am I blind too?" Listen carefully: becoming holy as Christ is Holy can only go as far as we're willing to surrender and focus on Jesus Christ.
If we make church about what we hoped or expected it to be, our hope will always end in disappointment If we make much of our desires rather than our desire for God's presence, we'll never recognize Jesus's presence Think about this: If we can't recognize His presence here at church, how will we recognize Him out in the world? What are you willing to surrender to make much of Jesus this morning?
Our greatest battle for a heart burning for worship isn’t preference… the greatest battle is us. The battle for worship isn't in the song, or the style, or in anything else - the battle for worship is in the soul Your worship barrier isn't the music - it's the mirror So I ask you today: Are we centered on Christ? Are we making much of Jesus... together? - I want to close with some application…
as we ask… how can we together, here in this worship setting…… Make much of Jesus? There’s a verse in an old hymn called Come, thou fount of every blessing… and it goes on to say, Tune my heart to sing thy grace. I was watching my son one day tune his bass guitar and I began thinking… Every time you take a guitar out of it’s case it needs to be tuned.
And once it’s tuned it can be left on a stand for a few days and when you pick it up again.. it needs retuned. It needs tuned because there are forces outside of its control that effect it. The wood may shrink or expand by the rising or lowering of the humidity. the strings may be new and not so stretched out. Or they may be old and too stretched to hold a tune.
A guitar left alone will always fall out of tune. Our hearts and minds are the same. Between Sunday we spend countless hours centered on ourselves. We get knocked around by life. Sin and the fallenness of humanity sends our hearts and emotional and thoughts in all different directions… But when we come back to worship together, and the Holy Spirit begins to strum the strings of our hearts, we hear an unharmous melody.
Hearts always require tuning. And hearts always require returning as well. So how can we together tune our hearts for worship? Well first… "Start your worship engine at home" You know, there's a beautiful promise in Lamentations that shapes how I start my day. It says 'His mercies are new every morning' (Lam 3:22-23). Think about that - every single morning, God has fresh mercy waiting for you. David understood this.
That's why he wrote in Psalm 143:8, 'Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love.' He wasn't just rolling out of bed and hoping to catch some spiritual momentum on the drive to church. No, he was intentionally starting his engine of worship before anything else. What would change in our worship if we treated every morning like David did - as a fresh opportunity to fuel up on God's love?” Try starting tomorrow morning with just five minutes of worship before checking your phone” For me personally, I put my phone in my bathroom to charge over night to keep from endless scrolling at night as I fall asleep, and I begin as I fall asleep to just lay in bed, and lay my hand over my heart, and say, Father, this is yours.
"Quiet your newsfeed, amplify your soul" "We live in a world of endless notifications and constant noise. But here's what's fascinating - when God wanted to speak to Elijah, He didn't come in the earthquake or the fire. He came in what 1 Kings 19 calls 'a gentle whisper.' Sometimes we need to turn down the volume of life to turn up the volume of God. Jesus knew this. That's why in Matthew 6:6, He didn't say 'check your phone first thing in the morning.' He said, 'Go into your room, close the door and pray.' Maybe the reason we struggle to hear God in worship is because we haven't created space to hear Him in the first place.”” What if we took the the next 15 minutes of our day to be still before God instead of scrolling through social media?" Third…
"Make space for grace" You know what's interesting about King David? This was a guy who literally lived in a palace, but in Psalm 84:10 he says, 'Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.' He'd rather be a doorkeeper - literally the first one there and the last to leave - in God's house than anywhere else. Why? Because he understood something we often miss: waiting on God isn't wasting time.
Isaiah 40:31 promises that 'those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.' When we make space - when we show up early, when we prioritize His presence - we're not just killing time. We're creating space for grace to work in our hearts." So many times we come to church not alive ourselves… come early and get a head start on worship. "Could you commit to arriving 10 minutes early just to prepare your heart for worship?” What if we showed up and we all just gathered for coffee, and snacks and prayer together?
And finally… Let your first breath be surrender" "Psalm 100:4 gives us this beautiful picture of entering God's presence: 'Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.' Notice it doesn't say 'Enter his gates checking your watch' or 'Enter his courts thinking about lunch plans.' The psalmist understood something vital about those first moments. And Paul picks up this theme in Romans 12:1 when he talks about offering our bodies as 'living sacrifices.' That word 'living' is crucial - it's not a one-and-done thing.
It's our first breath and every breath after that being surrendered to God's purposes." "What if we started each worship service by consciously surrendering our expectations and agendas?" "You know what ties all of this together? Psalm 42:1-2. I took this picture on our beautiful property this week. Which encouraged this message today. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” Our faith isn't just about following a checklist of spiritual habits.
It's about cultivating a genuine thirst for God's presence. When we start our worship engine at home, when we quiet our newsfeeds to amplify our souls, when we make space for grace, and when we let our first breath be surrender - we're not just going through religious motions. We're positioning ourselves to experience the living water our souls are truly thirsting for.” "What are you truly thirsting for this morning?
For me... it's to experience more of God's presence in my own life. What about you?"*