A Life Of Authentic Worship-Psalm 34

In this sermon on one of the core values of City Church Pastor Keith emphasizes the value of AUTHENTIC WORSHIP. Our worship of God is not merely external but internal from the heart. We not only aim to worship God accurately but affectionally. In our worship we respond to God’s beauty, truth & worth from the inside out. This involves thinking great thoughts about God, feeling affections for God & doing simple acts to obey God. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24 ESV). It is possible to worship God in vain totally missing the heart & aim of worship by merely going through the motions expressing worship externally but not internally engaging. Jesus spoke to those religious folks in his day who did this saying: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:7-9 ESV). In this sermon Pastor Keith examines a life of authentic worship from a snapshot of David's life & word in Psalm 34. The main idea is that God desires His people to experience His goodness and respond to Him in worship. David experience the goodness of God through specific deliverance & he called the saints to worship God with him because of His goodness. And David exhorted the saints to experience the goodness of God for themselves and responding by living a life of authentic worship in the fear of the Lord.