The Pursuit of Worship | Daniela Ardón

Worship is more than a song. It is a way of life. ☀️🙌

In the second week of our Psalms of Summer series, we learned that worship goes far beyond music. True worship is reflected in our decisions, our obedience, and the way we live every day.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
 — John 3:16

Through the story of Abraham and Isaac, we discovered the heart of a God who gave His very best for us and learned that in order to know how to worship, we must first know who we worship.

In this message we learned:

✨ Worship is a way of thinking, feeling, and acting.
 ✨ Worship is demonstrated through obedience.
 ✨ Worship is a daily decision to align ourselves with God.
 ✨ Gratitude should be our song in every season.

“To obey is better than sacrifice.”
 — 1 Samuel 15:22

👉 Worship is loving God.
 👉 Worship is loving others and seeing them through His eyes.
 👉 Worship is obeying God without hesitation.
 👉 Worship is living with gratitude in every season.

What song are you singing in the season you're currently facing?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Mission Orlando's podcast. We hope that through this word you will get closer to Jesus. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you new messages every week. Have a blessed day. Alright, church. Um, if we haven't been introduced, my name is Daniela Quintero Ardon. Um, my husband and I, we have two years um since we moved here in Orlando, and eight months ago we had our baby. I'm just so honored to be here with you. Yes, amen. I want to honor the lives of our pastors Juliana and Lorena Gamba, uh, who are not here with us today, but allowed me to have this honor of sharing a word with you. Amen. So today I'm gonna speak on this topic, the pursuit of worship. Say with me, the pursuit of worship. It's so interesting. The word pursue means, suggests a trade, a profession, or a vocation followed with seal or steady interest, an effort to secure or attain it's a quest. How wonderful that word, I love it. It's a quest. How many of us can actually say, oh, what do you do for a living? Oh, I pursue worship. I I look for new ways to worship. And when I was thinking about this um topic, this theme, this title, I don't know why it came to my uh to my thoughts this word where Abraham, this chapter in the Bible where Abraham needs to sacrifice his only son. Now, I've talked about this with believers and non-believers, and everybody agrees it's a terrible chapter in the Bible. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only and beloved son Isaac. Now, if you know a little bit about this, I'm gonna tell you uh, but you might have read this before. Abraham and Sarah couldn't have a child, but God promised them one. So they tried all sorts of ways to get it, and actually Abraham ends up having a child with somebody else, but that wasn't God's plan. Finally, years go by, they are old people now, and they have a child, and they named him Isaac. Isaac means the one who rejoices or brings laughter. I love that name. And I wonder if their house was filled with joy. Isaac was the apple of their eye, right? I mean, they were in love with their child, and finally, I could only speculate, but I think they said, finally, the promise of God came into our house, and everything is gonna be fulfilled. All of a sudden, in Genesis 22, verse 2, God says, Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain. I will show you.

unknown 3:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

What? Sacrifice the most important thing in my life for God. But listen up, Abraham says the the Bible says early the next day he took action. Early the next day, he didn't hesitate. He went up the mountain with his son and he was ready to sacrifice. I'm not saying he wasn't suffering while he was at it. I'm saying he did not hesitate to give the most important thing to the father. Sometimes I even hesitate if I should buy something or not. Sometimes I spend a whole week thinking, should I talk to that person or should I probably ignore it? But Abraham, giving the most important thing in his life, did not hesitate. The next morning, early, he went up the mountain with his son. The Bible says on verse 7, the fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? The scholars suggest Isaac was maybe an adolescent or old enough to carry the wood and ask this question: Where is the sacrifice? What are we sacrificing? Was he aware something was gonna happen? I think so. So they go up and they they prepare the altar, and the Bible says Isaac was there, you know, probably tied up at the altar. And Abraham lifts up the knife and he's ready to sacrifice him. But right when he was about to do it, when he was about to kill his only son, God stops him. Abraham, Abraham, twice he calls him. So here I am, he replied. Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Such a hard word to process. And I was thinking uh some of the questions sometimes that non-believers have, and even believers have this day, is how can I serve a God who is asking me such a thing? But let me show you. The Bible shows us that what almost happened between Abraham and Isaac actually happened between God the Father and Jesus. So he stopped something from happening. And I wonder if if he was trying to set an example of what was gonna happen years after at the cross. I'm wondering if she show he showed us something that almost happened in human form for us to understand the pain and the suffering at the cross. Because sometimes, I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes I feel like, well, okay, Jesus suffered, but he was fully God, fully human. So that fully God part, you know, it kind of makes it easier, maybe. But that's not the thing. And yes, God gave his only son, beloved, and in whom he was pleased. But was it easier for him? Because he was God, and so he kind of knew what was gonna happen after. But he showed us this example between Abraham and Isaac years before. It was almost like a prophecy, don't you think? A prophecy of what was gonna happen in the cross. At the cross, we see suffering and violence and pain. And it was Jesus, fully God, fully human. So he felt every part of it. And we can read about the suffering that he went before, during that part of the of his life, of the sacrifice. So today I'm showing you this how how these two images like mirror themselves, right? So I'm showing you this because I'm here to tell you that God is not asking something from us that he wouldn't give first. So worship, worship demands something that sometimes we don't want to give, but he's not asking for something that he wouldn't do for us first. So at the cross, when we reflect on the heart of the gospel, the cross, the suffering, the father giving his only son to the world to be saved. You know what when John uh 3.16 says something really famous, something even people non-believers uh know to by heart. It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. When he says these words, what the Bible shows us here is that the true and justice was already lived. And now that we live justified by the Lord, there are certain things that we could do to worship that Father, that savior, that God. When he says, take up your cross, take your cross and follow me. If you want to follow me, you need to die to yourself. If you want to gain life, eternal life, you need to lose your life here on earth and to the world and the world desires. When he says that, he knows what he's talking about, he knows it. And I'm again, I'm telling you this because how can we worship someone we do not know? How can we worship a God that we have no idea what He did for us first? How can we give our whole lives to someone we have no idea who He is? This morning I'm telling you, we should pursue worship in a deeper way. This morning I'm here to tell you worshiping is not only singing a song, a pretty song, a nice song. This morning I'm here to tell you that we don't give out uh from the excess or what we can spare. We give God our whole beings. That is the true heart of worship. We don't think true worship is not what comes out of, well, maybe if I had time in my day, you know, after work, after everything, after cleaning the house, if I have time to spare, I might pray. If I have something left in my pocket out of after the month is over, I might give something. True worship, sometimes it hurts. True worship, what the Lord is demanding from us this morning, sometimes it hurts. So I'm here to tell you just three three important things that you need to remember to do. Three important things that I encourage you this week to meditate on and follow and try, at least try, to be true worshipers. The Bible says we were made to worship. Obviously, we're not singing the entire day, we're not praising the entire day, but how can we worship with our lives? How then can we be a true sacrifice to our Father? Worship is a decision we have to make every day of our lives, to align ourselves with heaven. It's the heart with which we do anything and everything. Worship is to allow every part of you to say how beautiful you are, how worthy you are, you are holy, Father. How can I do that if I'm not speaking? How can I do that in the middle of work? How can I do that while I take care of my children? How can I do it? Let me show you. Number one, worship is not a song, it is a way of thinking, it is a way of feeling, and it's a way of acting. Romans 12, 1 and 2 says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is: His good, his pleasing, and his perfect will. Now let me ask you this. Please meditate on this question. It's my way of thinking in the pursuit of Christ. You can think about any thought you're having right now. Do those thoughts align with what he desires? Would he approve of what I'm thinking? Is every thought I'm having every day align, aligning to God? Is it pursuing him? Is it pursuing to be more like him? Is my way of feeling? Are all those feelings I'm having every day? Does it align with what he desires or what he approves of? Is my way of acting in the pursuit of Jesus? Does this way of acting align with what he desires from me? This would help you out every day. Am I pursuing Jesus? Am I pursuing to worship Jesus in the way I respond to my spouse? Is this honoring the Father, the way I act when somebody cuts me on traffic? Am I pursuing to be worship, to my to to become worship? And the way I'm feeling? Am I worshiping with the way I think, feel, or do? Am I truly loving God with all of my strength, with all of my heart, with all of my energy? Think about this. Number two, worship is not a song, it is to obey what the Holy Spirit is guiding us to do. Now let me tell you a story very quickly. King Saul disobeyed God. He tried to bring offerings to cover that up. God said, do this, and he kind of didn't did it. Like he failed to obey completely the word of God. So God is disappointed. And he talks to the prophet Samuel, and this is the message that King Saul received. What is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice. Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshipping idols.

unknown 16:09

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

I never thought that me disobeying something that looked small was as bad as witchcraft. I've never been involved with witchcraft. I think I'm not a worshiper of idols. But my pride and my stubbornness is as bad as that. I wrote something here. Truly, we need sometimes to think about this. If your heart is far from the Lord, and if you keep on doing whatever makes sense to you, but not to the Lord, then you're not presenting true worship. Even when you sing a beautiful song on Sundays. Do I read my Bible? Do I pray? Do I fast? Do I come to the church? Do I do all these things kind of like to fill my agenda, to fill my schedule? Or isn't my heart truly in it? Because let me tell you, we can be serving every Sunday and not being worshippers. Number three, worship can be a song. I'm here to tell you. I love singing. If you have seen me here in church, I love singing. That's what I do. When literally, when people ask me what do you do for living, I say, I'm a worshiper. I'm a worship leader. That's what I do. But it's not only about singing songs, it's about singing the right song. And I'm here to tell you something that it's really hard sometimes. And it's singing a song of gratitude. The Bible is filled with verses on gratitude. And I was noticing something. Many of those verses come from Psalms, and many of those verses come at a time of anguish and pain. The Bible says, pray in gratitude. Do not worry. Pray in gratitude. And while while you're in the middle of an issue, of a problem, while you're frustrated with life, be grateful. This is the song that we need to sing. I remember two years ago when we came here to Orlando, to mission Orlando, um, I was going through a very rough patch. You know, if anyone has moved countries, left everything behind, starred brand new, like you know what I'm talking about. The pain was real. And I remember um Pastor Julian loved to sing, praise the Lord, oh my soul. I love that song, but it was painful to sing it. So I remember I was crying really bad, and I said, I am going to walk to the hall, and I'm gonna sing, and I'm gonna dance that song. And I remember just feeling the pain. It didn't go away. But while I was singing and praising and and dancing, I could feel the burden just coming down. I could feel, I could feel like light, you know what I mean? I stopped feeling heavy in the presence of the Lord. Psalms 108, 3 through 5 says, I will praise you, Lord, among the nations. I will sing of you among the people, for great is your love, higher than heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the sky. Be exalted, oh God above the heavens, let your glory be over all the earth. I'm almost finished, but think about this. Tea has a night fragrance, a nice fragrance. The bags of teas, it smells good, right? Spices. But when you put it under hot water, that is when its true nutrients and scents come off. You can smell a teabag, and it smells. If you're going through, I'm telling you this morning, you need to be worshiping. You need to sing a song of gratitude. Because that is when what we're made of truly comes out. If we are true worshipers, if we follow the true worship, the heart of worship, then even in the midst of trouble, we will have something to sing. We will have something to sing because he is worthy. Because he is holy. Because he did it first. Because he gave his life. The most important thing. Jesus did not give what he could spare for you. He gave the most important thing for you. Because God so loved you that he gave his only son in order to you for you to be rescued, for you to be loved, for you to be called son or daughter. That is the God who we worship. Amen. Amen. Give it up for Jesus this morning. Give it up for the Father this morning. Because he deserves it. You deserve it all, Jesus. You deserve our worth. You are worthy of our worship. So before I I just got some seconds uh left. Final thoughts, church. Worship is loving God. Worship is loving others and see them through his eyes. Worshiping is to obey his commands with no hesitation. Worshiping is resting to. Worshiping is taking our body seriously, our health seriously. Worship is to read our Bible with curiosity and hunger, to pray with humility and a heart open, to fast with expectation and commitment. It's to work with excellence. It's to prepare a meal for your loved ones, not with anger, even when you're tired, but with patience and love. Worship is to pick up some trash if you find it. I cannot reach it right now, but I you know what I mean. Worship is to have faith even when the world urges you to take a different road. Worship is to give up your sinful ways and choose his way, even when it hurts. Worship is to stop lying. Worship is to stop wanting to have control on everything and everyone around you. It is to take care of your children while somebody else goes out to work. Or maybe it is to go to work while somebody else is taking care of your children. Worship is to choose not to fight. Worship is to speak gently to the cashier that is acting entitled. Worship is to take close attention to what you see on the television. Worship maybe looks like not stop speaking ill about yourself in the mirror. Worship is to look up to the Lord every single day of your life. And ask and ask yourself, am I truly at the altar at the altar burning for him? Am I pursuing the heart of worship? So let's pray to finish this. Thank you, Father, for showing us what truly means to love others. You gave up the most important thing. Thank you, Jesus, for being obedient to that call. You went up the cross, it was a sacrifice. You gave up yourself for us. Thank you because you're showing us the way. Thank you because you were obedient. So you showed us how to be truly obedient. Thank you, Holy Spirit. The Bible says that you've been in the depths of the Father's heart. So you know what the Father wants from us. Please show us, reveal us this week. Please reveal what we need to become, who we need to become in order to be true worshipers in the spirit and in truth. We desire this this morning. And we praise you for you are good, for you are holy, for you are worthy. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen and amen. Give it up for Jesus this morning.

unknown 27:04

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

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