Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart.

Proverbs 3 says trust in the Lord with all of your heart. We would just say “trust in the Lord.” God says with “all of your heart.” Why do you suppose He added that. Because He knows what’s in a man. You can talk about sanctification but at some point it has to be more than christianese (or church talk). Sanctification is a real work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is for your whole heart.

We get saved. We confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. We then begin a journey where our heart is being transformed. Our spirit is sealed at that moment by the Holy Spirit. Our soul or our mind is still seeing, tasting, hearing, feeling everything the body or our flesh is sending to it. Our soul is also hearing from our born again spirit. Our spirit is hearing Him, the Truth.

A hardened heart makes it very difficult to hear His voice. A hardened heart comes about through our daily routine of what we’re basting our heart in. If we throw our heart in the salt spring of the world we find, over time our heart gets sour and hard, like leather being boiled and then dried. In fact in olden days this is how they would make armor.

Remember the Holy Spirit has sealed your spirit inside your heart. The Holy Spirit is actually living water (Is 58 or 54). Living water actually transforms that sour hard shell back into a supple heart of flesh. The problem is you can’t have both.  You cannot have fresh and salt water flow from the same spring.

The trap in this is the daily routine that is developed. This routine is what forms your thoughts and attitudes. The thoughts and attitudes make up who you are and what you do. That is why you wear the clothes that you do, that is why you live where you live. Your thoughts lead to your actions. I like to say that your actions are servants of your thoughts. In the movie “Tomorrow Land” the main character said something I will never forget, “There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins?” Pause to think…, “the one you feed.”  The truth here is do you feed your mind with the twisted half-truths of the world or do you feed your mind the absolute truth of God’s word.

Worship demonstrates who is on the throne of your heart. To say it differently worship is your daily routine demonstrating what rules your heart. Good or bad, light or dark, God or you. Does His word rule or do my circumstances? Does His word reign or does the world’s wisdom guide me? My simple daily choices loudly proclaim who is on the throne of my heart.

Those who let money make their decisions demonstrate a life that proves one cannot serve both God and money. Greed destroys because it abuses the fundamental purpose for which prosperity and wealth were created for. Tithes and offerings are not about money. God wants you to see your heart. Your giving is evidence of what you believe. God’s desire is for you to be free, not bound by ways of the world. Give and it will be given to you, a good measure pressed down and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. If you give and are not walking in His abundance then there is heart problem not a God problem. Who’s or what is on the throne of your heart?

Those who want to believe most of the time but would like to remain on the throne, sometimes or at least for important decisions, demonstrate a life with an appearance of godliness but lacking in power. An example of this person is the believer that goes to church, may even tithe, and then goes home and watches 20 hours of news while cursing their enemies. This, honestly, describes a majority of Christians. This is also why the world laughs at the church. People can smell a hypocrite from a long ways off. I am not asking who appears to be on the throne of your heart when you are at church. I am asking who is on the throne of your heart when nobody is watching.

Those who worship in spirit and in truth are simply obedient to God. He is on the throne of their heart.

David was described as a man after God’s own heart. Read 1 Sam 30. David had been anointed king of Israel yet Saul was still king. David was running with about 600 men from Saul and had been for years. David seeking rest from the relentless pursuit of Saul goes to the Philistines and they give him a town to stay in called Ziklag. David and his men return to Ziklag at the direction of the Philistine King and find their home burned, and all of their wives, children, and animals taken captive. You know what David did? I know you haven’t read it yet even though I told you to read 1 Sam 30, it’s ok. I understand. David inquired of the Lord, “Should I pursue them?” THINK ABOUT THAT!     David asked, “Should I pursue them?” Most men faced with a similar situation would never even consider asking God what to do – they would do first. I get home and my house is burning. My family has been kidnapped and I see the trail of who did it. I would chase them down like a rabid hyena. I would act worse when I caught them. Not David. Think about this. He had been anointed by Samuel as King of Israel around 20+ years before. Twenty years waiting in faith, trusting in God. I would be fighting a little confusion. God you said I was king and now it’s been years? Did I hear you right, did you change your mind? Not David, the man after God’s own heart, he believed. He trusted and believed so much that even with 600 faithful men at their wits end ready to stone him to death, David still asks God, “Should I pursue them?” God says yes. They catch them and get everything back – they lost no one. This is the same time Saul decides to talk to the witch of Endor then is wounded in battle and killed. In 24 hours David went from the biggest test of his life to being enthroned King of Israel. David has always had a descendant on the throne. Read Matthew 1 and see Jesus came from the house of David. David worshipped in spirit and in truth, being simply obedient to God. He had placed Jehovah-Raah, the Lord his Shepherd, on the throne of his heart.

In Genesis 22:5 Abram said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” You see God told Abram to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac. Abram did or was doing what God told him to do. I have to point out his words of faith. You see that he said “we will go and we will come back.” He had faith in God. He believed even if he had to sacrifice his son that God would raise him from the dead and fulfill His promise to Abram that He would bless him and his descendants would be more than the stars in the sky. Abram had vacated the throne of his heart and yielded to Jehovah Jireh, the Lord his Provider!

So, we have come to the close of our discussion on worship. The Holy Spirit is gently, lovingly, kindly, graciously asking, “Who is on the throne of your heart?” Invite Him onto the throne, trusting in faith that He desires better for you and your whole family than you can even hope or imagination. Take this leap and you’ll know the feeling Peter had when he first stepped out of the boat and you will see the all-powerful, always loving, Savior look you in the eyes of the heart and say “follow me.” Your life will never be the same. With the Holy Spirit on the throne of your heart you will experience power, love, and miracles even greater than what Jesus did. God is good, all of the time. When the enemy comes and tempts your mortal body with a shortcut then you will say like Jesus, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”