Sheryl Brady - Giving Worship a Voice

I want to go to Habakkuk chapter 2, and I’m going to read one verse, and that is verse 14. It’s very familiar, and I’m very grateful for the presence of the Lord, for feelings, and for Your lingering and abiding presence. Habakkuk tells us, he says, «For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.» I have to stop right there and just point that out; it doesn’t say «for the earth might be» or «perhaps it will be,» but he’s very adamant when he says «for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.» The word knowledge there means awareness, so «for the earth shall be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.» There will be observation, acknowledgment, and recognition that this is the glory of the Lord. The earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Look at somebody and tell them, «Go for the glory! Go for the glory!» Now, go to Revelation chapter 7. We’re going to read a couple of verses right there. If you don’t have your Bible, you can read it with us on the screen. Verse number 9 says, «And after this, I beheld, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues; and they stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands. They cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.' All the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, 'Amen! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen! '»

But go back up to that first verse that we read, «After this, I beheld, and behold, a great multitude.» We have a tendency to think that this great multitude consists only of those who have already crossed over, and while they are indeed a great multitude—the Bible says they are a cloud of witnesses—I want to point out to you today, and I trust that by the time we finish, I can help you understand that your voice is part of that great multitude. Your voice! If everybody in this room worships today, and you don’t, God would still be listening for your voice. Where were you? You are a part of that great multitude. Look at your neighbor on the right and say, «Neighbor, I’ma warn you today; I’m going to give worship a voice.» Turn to your other neighbor and say, «Neighbor, give worship a voice!» That means you’ve got to open your mouth and give worship a voice. Hallelujah!

Father, today we honor You, and we thank You for Your presence that is in this room. I pray that as we open up this word and start to unpack it and declare what You have given us to declare, that You will step into the moment and break it down to a level that every person, whether in the room or watching online, has the ability to comprehend and understand what You’re saying today. Use me, Lord; just hide me behind Your cross and use me, O God, to declare Your word to Your people so that we can have an understanding of the worship that You’ve called this house to. I thank You for doing it in the name of Jesus. Somebody shout, «Amen!» On your way down, just warn them, «I’m getting ready to worship! I’m just letting you know to get ready to give a voice. I’m getting ready to give a voice to worship!» Some of you have been sitting next to them ever since you started coming to this church, and you haven’t heard a peep out of them, and you’re like, «I believe it when I hear it.» When you get ready to hear it, get ready!

For the last couple of Sundays, we have been talking about worship, and the Sunday before last, we talked about the river of God and the flow of God’s presence. I told you then, and I’ll tell you again today that there is a river found in worship that will satisfy the thirsty soul like nothing else will satisfy it. There’s not a shopping trip you could take, there’s not a bottle of liquor you could drink, and there’s not a drug you could take that will satisfy the thirst and crave inside your soul like tapping into the river of God’s presence. Some of us know because we’ve been there; we’ve done that, and it didn’t work. But once we tapped into the river of God’s presence, it changed everything about us, our lives, and hopefully the trajectory of our family life for generations to come. Many of you broke the cycle in your house, in your family. I said many of you broke the cycle because you chose to satisfy your thirst from a different source, and that source is Jesus Christ. Not only does the River of God satisfy our thirst, but when we press in and tap into the river of God beyond just the song service, beyond just us coming together and putting three songs on a list and singing what’s on the song list…