Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral or soul care encourager here in Southwest Florida, and I’m so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for over 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with us, you know that we’re working through a series that I call Soul Care Portraits of God. Of course, you know, all of scripture to me is filled with portraits of God.

But we’re looking at this particular type of portrait for this series about soul care. And our working definition for soul care is simply this.

Soul care is simply about two things, our unique, God-given heart wiring and heart wounds, which the Lord yearns to lovingly reveal and heal to the degree we abide in him to bear much fruit. And that, of course, is John 15, 5 there at the end. Yeah, heart wiring, heart wounds, and how the Lord is our soul care shepherd, which is the first of the eight messages or broadcasts that I shared with you. It’s out of Psalm 23.

Then the second one was on how he is our healing shepherd, or excuse me, our healing creator. He’s our creative designer, our creative healer. It’s another way that he takes care of our souls. Saw that in Romans 12 and Jeremiah 17.

And then we amplified on that third one, how in this third broadcast, I said that, you know what? The Lord’s our creative healer in these specific ways, in this specific manner. We took a wonderful journey through that. And then the fourth broadcast was how he is our constant conversation out of John 1, how many years ago at a global missions conference, I had an epiphany.

I was speaking with a gentleman, and a mentor. He became to me and he said something that absolutely changed everything along the lines of how the Lord is our constant conversation. It was a great time. I hope you go back and check that out.

And then as we continue our journey, we got to number five and I said to put a gold star by this one He is our deeper dive And this is how we look at five depths of a progressive intimacy with the Lord how we can dive deeper and deeper and keep on swimming in him Oh it a pivotal pivotal message I hope you check that out Number five of eight and at my website, by the way, yeah, that website is markpg.org, markpg.org. All of these broadcasts are archived there along with some other things. And yeah, I call it helping you hear God.

And so you can find this series and many more series there markpg.org he is our deeper dive and then last time number six he is our wondrous mystery we looked at the fourth and fifth levels of that deeper dive which the bible calls those two levels those two portraits mysteries and boy did we take a journey in looking at those mysteries now today number seven of eight as we’re winding down this series, is a portrait that’s very dear to my heart. I call it, He is our Worship Focus. He is our worship focus. My friends, Jesus specifically said that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

If you want soul care, If you want to experience the soul care of God, enlivening and deepening and expanding your worship life is crucial. And we’re going to look what I used to call and teach as three types or worship dynamics and vocal points. taught that for a few years and then I went through a personal time of really deep struggles some things were going on in our church I ended up going to the Cove the Billy Graham Training Center this is years ago and then it was a pastor’s conference and the worship leaders there and and the sessions there I mean I experienced a fourth dynamic of worship that I hadn’t noticed before and it is a game changer.

So we’re going to look at these four worship focuses because he is our worship focus. Back in the years and even now we have what we call the worship wars where people have wars about what worship should be like, what it should sound like, how it should be experienced, what you can, what you can’t do, what types of music is appropriate and what isn’t and what’s the real tone of worship that’s the most beneficial to us, but even more importantly, most special to God. And we’re going to look at actually four of them. And I can wait to unfold it for you because he is our worship focus And by the way worship is more about our focus than our feelings Get that logged in as we get ready to take this journey together Feelings can be a part, as often as a part, should be a part, but it’s not the totality.

It’s the focus. Worship is more about our focus than our feelings. And I’m going to give you four more portraits and worship types or dynamics that actually will help end any worship war that your church or even you individually or maybe even your family or your friends or between denominations, it’ll end those when we understand that it’s kind of all of the above. Why?

Because the scripture says so and it’s the Lord who speaks through the scriptures.

So as we get started, that is our custom let’s just go before the lord and ask him to speak as we begin our journey in discovering how he is our worship focus lord i love coming together with my brothers and sisters to sit at your feet to worship you worship is so many things among them is listening with an open heart. Oh Lord, we want to hear your heart today. We want you to touch our hearts. We’re ready to receive it.

Lord, I pray you’ll help me do the best I can to unpack this marvelous truth about how you are a worship focus and it can be so different depending upon the situation and the time and all these things.

So thank you for this opportunity to sit at your feet together to see how you are our worship focus. Oh, we pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering, and forgiving blood. Amen. Amen and amen.

All right, my friends.

So let’s talk about worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth. I love how Jesus said that to the woman at the well over in John chapter 4 verses 23 and 24. I mean, he couldn’t say it more clearly. He says, but an hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Hey, how’s your worship life, my friends? Are you getting bogged down in ministry and all the ministry activities and the programs all of the activities all the meetings and also life in general all the busyness that we deal with Where is your worship life?

How is your worship life? Do you even worship at home? Do you approach life in the spirit of worship, that the Lord is always with you, that you are one with Him? And if so, what does that worship look like?

And what about your church family? What’s the worship like there? Well, as we go through first the three and then that fourth one that I discovered later in my walk with the Lord that just, I mean, morphs everything. As we walk through this, let me just encourage you to ask the Lord, Lord, what is my personal worship like?

What is my mates like, our kids like? What is our church family? What’s that worship like? Where are we right now?

And where do you want to take us?

So I hope you’ll enjoy this.

So to help you out, let’s think about a little diagram. Just put a little triangle, top right hand corner, maybe of a page if you’re taking notes, because I’m going to give you these four things. One for the top of the triangle, then the bottom left, the bottom right, and then right in the center is that fourth one that is just transformative. All right, so let’s start at the top.

And I want to share with you how when it comes to worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth, the truth is, according to Isaiah chapter six, one through five, is that worship should be majestic, right? Majestic worship. because he is our king. Majestic worship. Here’s what it says in Isaiah 6 verses 1 through 5.

Top of the triangle in the diagram. In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, and the train of his robe filling the temple. And seraphim, those are angels, stood above him. And then in verse 3, goes on to say he falls at his feet before a holy God in awe in the fear of the Lord who is holy, holy, holy.

My friends, there are many church traditions, high church traditions, that emphasize worshiping the king as the high and holy king of kings and lord of lords and that is a great thing and it’s a good starting place it’s a great starting place and in my journey i i just sense that that is the beginning place of worship seeing the lord in his majesty and glory his power his strength like this passage is is talking about but when we see these words holy holy holy is the Lord let me give you an insight about that that’s actually in in Hebrew grammar that’s the superlative form now in English we would say something is holy but something else is holier than that and something else is the holiest of all well they didn’t do that they just repeated it something is holy but if it’s really holy they’d say it’s holy holy but if it’s the superlative, the utmost of holiness, you say, holy, holy, holy. This is what I believe the Lord is sharing with us here through Isaiah, that the first and foremost character quality of God, or at least the starting place, is his holy, holy, holy nature. I believe that’s why the scripture is filled with references to the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is what?

The beginning of knowledge. Elsewhere, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It’s only until we see God and his utter holiness that all the others fall into its proper place and perspective. We must never lose our sense of the awesome holiness of God, being awestruck by the God of the ages, by the God of the universe, with a presence in eternity past, as well as eternity future, and we’re just a speck on that timeline that’s going both ways into eternity.

The Lord is the majestic King of the ages. Our worship should be majestic worship, and you know, in my particular journey, and I’ve been in churches where we did have the wonderful anthems, the hymns, the hymnology, the pipe organ, you know, and some traditions that are more, let’s say, ceremonial.

Some of the, even some of the Catholics, and there’s some Catholics that know the Lord and stuff for sure, you know, all of us, I mean, all the denominations, they do have believers within them But there a in some denominations there a high emphasis in a high church style of worship to never never lose sight of the Lord as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And that a great thing. Hence all the cathedrals throughout hundreds of years, high and ornate and with gold. And I’ve seen them around the world and they’re magnificent and they do give you that sense.

But my friend, that’s not the ending point. And that’s not the singular point or style or type or focus for worship. It’s just the first. Majestic worship at the top of the triangle is something we should all experience in our life and never lose that sense of awe and wonder and the proper fear of the Lord.

By the way, don’t squirm at the word fear. You know, we have a healthy fear of the Lord, like we have a healthy fear of electricity. You better have a health and of water. You can drown in water and electricity can kill you.

So you have to have a healthy fear of it. We’re not going to be terrified and just stay away. Right.

So that’s a that’s a pretty good idea there to keep in mind. The fear of the Lord is a good thing, but it’s the power and majestic nature of God. That’s our focal point there.

But there’s another kind of worship, not just majestic worship of our king, but celebrative worship of our victor. The Lord is the victor. The Lord is the general. The Lord is the one who conquered death.

I mean, he is our victory. And that’s something to be celebrated. Hey, do you remember the accounts in the Old Testament about David coming back after winning a big victory as a general of the armies of Judah and all? And what were they saying?

Well, they were saying that Saul has slain his thousands, but David the ten thousands. This was the golden age of Israel. And later it would have the split kingdom into Israel and Judah.

But this was the golden age when Israel was one. And they would celebrate like the ticker tape parades. And they were saying that, of course, it aggravated, infuriated Saul. And that’s a whole other story. but it’s the idea of celebrating with vibrancy and dancing the victorious and conquering general.

And Jesus is ours. Celebrative worship is a biblical form of worship. Every bit as much as a biblical foundation is majestic worship. Psalm 149, 1 through 4 is just one of many examples.

Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of the godly ones. let israel be glad in his maker let the sons of zion rejoice in their king Let them praise his name with dancing Let them praise sing praises to him with timbrel and lyre for the Lord takes pleasure in his people and he will beautify and the afflicted ones with salvation.

So the bottom left triangle, put a dot there and right, celebrative worship.

Now our charismatic friends team and the Pentecostals seem to have a greater vibrancy than some of the others. Our Haitian brothers and sisters and different cultures have very vibrant worship.

And sometimes those who are more majestic worship traditions, more high church, more conservative, you know, they kind of look down their nose at what they’re doing and celebrate it.

But it’s just as proper and biblical and needed as the other, because we’re celebrating the Lord Jesus as our rescuer, healer, and savior. Even styles of music, good old Southern gospel is very celebrative, you know, and jazz is celebrative.

So there’s room for that.

So those are two of the four where we’re headed. On the bottom right hand side of that diagram, you can add to majestic worship, which is at the top. He’s our king. bottom left celebrative worship he’s our victor add intimate worship you know why because he’s our daddy romans 8 15 through 17 puts it this way for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again now that’s a terrifying kind of fear not the proper all kind of fear we spoke about a moment ago under majestic worship but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba, Father. Abba, it’s the idea of daddy.

It’s personal. Verse 16, the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. We’re children.

He’s our daddy. There’s an intimacy there. We covered that in those five levels. The deeper dive one, number, let’s see, that was number five in our series.

And the deepest one is called mysteries, which we called also the wondrous mysteries. List these. The Lord as our intimate father our daddy also as the bridegroom their love his love These metaphors all work And there an intimacy there The child likeness I love how the scripture also tells us over in Matthew 18, 4, when Jesus said, whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And then in Mark 10, 15, Jesus said, truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

Intimate worship, my friends, is the worship that is laced with childlike trust, a childlike sense of absolute need and dependence on the Lord. Oh, Lord, you’ve done so much. I need you so much. And that’s the love of a child.

Trish-like. I mean childlike. Trust. Need.

Love. Yes, he’s the majestic king, but you know what? The son or daughter of the king can run into the throne room, see the king up on the throne, say, Daddy, Daddy, and run and jump on his lap, and he takes great delight in that, as we saw in the passage. Or the groom’s heart, a bride and a groom, the groom’s love for his bride, I’ll protect you, I am with you, I’ll never leave you or forsake you, intimate worship.

And these are those gentle songs, the ones that are sung to the Lord himself, I love you Lord. And this is the type of worship that we do at campfires, at sunset, Vesper services, or Easter sunrise services, intimate worship. Very different than celebrated, very different than majestic, but just as important and just as biblical. Are you with me? all right so we have been talking about these first three which i taught for several years until we i went through a really serious struggle in my own life and some serious challenges in our church that i was pastoring and by the way every church has this ebbs and flows and they’ll be it’s like the waves of the sea it’s like the tides there’s low ebb and then there’s high tide or stuff.

I mean, these are going to come and go.

So don’t be overwhelmed if your church is going through a serious time of difficulty. We were then, and I just needed to get away. I went to the Billy Graham Training Center, which is called The Cove. Beautiful, wonderful place.

It was a pastor’s conference. Not a lot of guys, not a lot of people, not a lot of husbands and wives were there, of course, and all.

But I was really struggling. And the worship leaders The people who wrote, we bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord and old chorus, were leading.

But here’s the thing. I was prepared to experience majestic or celebrative or intimate worship. We were doing some of those, but there was something else. There was something I couldn’t put my finger on that makes…

What’s so different? The way we’re worshiping now, I’m experiencing a deeper sense of the presence of God than I have before. What is it? and I got a chance to visit with them over lunch here and there and hear their story and then they would share part of their story as they later in worship and here’s what I discovered by day three I was saying Lord what is so different my model is not standing up and this is when I got the sense of him saying put a star right in the middle of that triangle all three of those are true majestic at the top celebrative in the bottom left intimate at the bottom right but this is broken worship. The star right in the middle of the triangle.

What do we mean by that? My friends, when this couple was leading worship they would start the session by telling us some stories in their lives and their journey how they had to leave the mission field because they had some serious issues with their teenage son and daughter And it broke their heart to have to leave the mission field but their kids were more important. They came back to the States. They weren’t sure why and this and that and the other.

And it was a long journey and they were still in the midst of it.

But in sharing snippets of their story and their journey with the Lord, and their heartbreak and their confusion. And yet the Lord’s presence and reassurance every step of the way and the ebbs and flows of that. That’s brokenness. That’s seeing our own vulnerability and our desperate need for the Lord because He is our healer.

James 4, 8 through 10 puts it this way. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you For years I didn understand that It sounded like a Debbie Downer kind of a thing No it expressing the reality that life is brutal unusual unexpected and just hard, hard things will happen. And that draws us to the Lord.

It can, but it can also drive us away. It depends on our response. The best response, the response the Lord is yearning for is worship. Come worship me all the more.

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord. When we do, he will exalt us. Psalm 32.1 puts it this way. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

And then over in 1 Peter 2.24, For he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. By whose stripes or wounds you were healed. We come and worship the Lord. Majestic worship, celebrated worship, intimate worship.

But now discovering that right in the middle of all that is broken worship. that the more we experiencing the trials of life the tribulations of life the wounds of life the wounds of life Worship the Lord all the more falling at his feet hugging his knees letting him lift us up and exalt us. And what I discovered was in this brokenness that we try to avoid, but is inevitable in our life, it’s in that brokenness that majestic becomes more majestic, celebrative, more celebrative, intimate, more intimate. And this is, my friend, is how the worship war is over. We need all four types of worship in our lives.

Brokenness amplifies all four. And that’s what ends any worship war. He’s that kind of God. He is our worship focus.

Oh Lord, we thank you for that. We receive that. We want to walk in that. We want to dive into that.

Because you are our worship focus. Thank you, Lord. Well, I’m Mark Gonzales, and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org for more. Until next time, fall in love with Jesus, our Worship Focus.