God wants your worship of Him to be fervent and filled with passion. Sometimes that will translate into excitement and delight; other times it will mean you’re introspective and meditative. No matter the physical form of our worship – your heart should approach the praise and adoration of God with passion. Worship many times will cause you to be awestruck!

Can you imagine finding out this morning that you are related to a rich and wonderful family – or that you’re royalty? King Ralph with John Goodman and The Princess Diary with Anne Hathaway are movies that show an unsuspecting American citizen who finds out, through some kind of mishap or secret from their past, that they are actually royalty. In fact, they’re next in line to the throne! These movies show these characters being awestruck by the grandeur of the palaces, the magnificence of the royal court, the size of their closet and bathroom and the number of their personal servants. They are in awe of their illustrious ancestry – and of their rich and famous living relatives.

If you found out that you were Bill Gates’ long-lost sibling, and you were ushered in to a new life of Microsoft stock and money and the rich and famous friends that come with it, you might be in awe. What if you found that, through some fluke or accident of Congress, that you were the sole owner of the Rocky Mountains? When you first traveled to Denver to begin your inspection of your land-holdings, you’d see the mountains marching north and south as far as the eye could see – and, if you’re like me, you’d be in awe.

That feeling of awe might come close to how you should feel towards God. The vastness of His holdings to the ends of the universe and beyond; the glory and splendor of His Heavenly Court; the riches He controls; the immensity of His love for You, and how it is instantly available to you and constantly being bestowed upon you.

There is an ancient understanding I want you to learn about reverence for God: With everything you are in your inmost being – be in awe of God!

In King David’s time, the people of Israel took a tremendous offering to build the Temple. David first gave from His personal wealth to set the tone for the offering. Then all of the leaders of each family gave to further set the tone, followed by each individual giving generously to the work of building the Temple.

They raised an enormous amount of money – unheard of in those times or our own – billions of dollars in today’s money. When they saw what God had done in their midst, the people rejoiced greatly! Then, David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly:

“Praise be to You, O Lord,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.
Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom;
You are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from You;
You are the ruler of all things.
In Your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
Now, our God, we give You thanks,
and praise Your glorious Name.

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand.

“O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of Your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to You.”

Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.” So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the Lord and the king. (1 Chronicles 29:10-14, 18, 20)

At first, it may sound like they were about to praise God, but changed their minds and decided to kneel or fall “prostrate” which means to touch their forehead to the ground or lay flat with their face to the ground. Then we realize that kneeling and bowing low or laying down prostrate is their praise and worship. The form of their praise gave an indication of the condition and attitude of their hearts. You don’t kneel or lay down face-first unless you are passionate about your worship and passionate about your God!

In our new Ministry Center, we will have a large kneeling step around the front of the platform. The step can be used to walk up on the platform, but it’s designed to be a place where we can all kneel as a part of our worship. We want to make the facility work for us – to “facilitate” our praise and worship.

God wants you to work on your heart – your inner being – to “facilitate” your praise and worship from the inside – out! How can you begin to be in awe of God with everything you are in your inmost being?

Here’s something to think about: kneeling and bowing low and falling on your face before God are both a result of your awe-filled worship – and a tool or technique for training your heart to feel awestruck in the Presence of God. If you don’t feel the urge to bow down – then bow down in obedience. If kneeling is not yet a response to a yearning in your heart – then start trying kneeling until your heart responds.

That’s the same for any form of worship: raising your hands, clapping, crying, laughing, dancing. . . do it purposefully to train your inner being to do it instinctively and reflexively. One way to help your heart express itself in a form of worship is to intentionally employ a form of worship to match your heart until the awe and the passion expresses itself freely and automatically.

No matter the physical form of our worship – your heart should approach the praise and adoration of God with passion. God wants your worship of Him to be fervent and filled with enthusiasm – He wants you to be passionate about your worship. Sometimes that will translate into excitement and delight; other times it will mean you’re introspective and meditative; either way, worship should cause you to be awestruck!

Passionate worship is all about your relationship with God. Psalm 91:1 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” All creation declares the glory of God unintentionally just by being there, but human beings are unique in that we can choose to bless God!

Still, while the choice is indeed ours, we read in the Old Testament that we are obligated to worship God. In the Old Testament, a lifestyle of blessing God was seen in the practices of temple worship and in the religious and community feasts and festivals. People of the Old Testament in a right relationship with God were to live life in a way that blessed Him always.

In the New Testament we still see the obligations of faithful living and grateful blessing - but these are no longer obligations imposed from the outside; they are inspired from the inside by the Holy Spirit. God empowers us in such a way that makes obedience a pleasure.

In John 17 Jesus prays a prayer that gives us a glimpse of the internal worship life of the triune God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bring glory to each other and go all out in expressing eternal love delight in one another. Again in Luke 10:21 & 22 we get another view into this worship of the Son for the Father through the Spirit when “full of joy through the Holy Spirit” Jesus praised and blessed His Father.

For us, worship must never be some unwitting or half-hearted ritual, or a desperate attempt to honor a God who is “way out there.” Instead, our praise and worship of God is personal, spontaneous, and passionate. Worship is not so much created and worked up from within us - it is modeled and inspired from the awe-filled worship and adoration we see Jesus has for the Father through the Holy Spirit.

Another way to help your heart express itself in passionate worship is to prepare your heart to listen and discern, and then yield to the move of the Holy Spirit within you allowing yourself to follow the Spirit’s lead in awe-filled praise.

What would it feel like to find out that you belonged to a rich and famous family? Would you be awe-struck? Would you be overwhelmed with emotion? Would you be excited? Scared?

This week, I spent time with my family in Kansas. On Friday, we had a big William’s family reunion, and we had the opportunity to meet a whole new generation of 3rd cousins. One little boy prepared to go to sleep and decided to hug some folks. This little 3 year old hugged someone he knew, then someone he didn’t know, and then the light dawned on him that there was a room filled with adults he didn’t know. He had a choice – ignore them or hug them. He chose to hug them all.

Making the rounds, he embraced each one of us and told us “good night.” After about the fifth strange family member, he found we were safe, and loving, and cuddly, and he started having fun. His smile broadened at the prospect that he belonged to so many big people, and that they all belonged to him. His hugs grew in intensity and strength, and he gleefully went from person to person – sometimes interrupting conversations – to give hugs to everyone before he went to bed. He was awe-struck at the number of people he had to hug; but the awe turned to joy as the hugs started.

How can you learn to feel awe-struck? How can you get in touch with the “passion” of worshipping God? What will your “forms” of worship become as you learn to be passionate about your worship?

I hope you learn that for worship to become passionate – you must first develop a passion for worship. Yes – read it again: for worship to become passionate – you must first develop a passion for worship.

A passion for worship is developed by doing. You can’t be passionate about worship without worshipping regularly. A passion for worship is also developed by personally connecting to the heart of God. You can’t be passionate about worshipping a God with whom you are not intimate.

The ability to worship corporately flows out of your ability to worship privately. Increase the frequency and improve the quality of your private times of worship, and you’ll find your corporate experiences will become more rich and wonderful – and we all will feel the increase of the Spirit’s flow in our corporate worship as a result. Our goal is to develop a personal passion for worship, so that our worship may become passionately personal!

God wants your worship of Him to be fervent and filled with passion. He knows that passion may not be the motivation at first, so He wants you to be obedient and step up to the task of worship until the passion becomes the driving force. Worship should always be filled with awe, where the Holy Spirit moves in our heart-felt praise. Sometimes we start with physical worship until we learn to listen to the Spirit, who then begins to help us feel awestruck.

With everything you are in your inmost being – be in awe of God!