Worship God in Spirit and Truth

Transcript

GRM 501
9/15/1996
Worship God in Spirit and Truth
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

The people of God ought to understand and know what it means to worship the living God. Yet I fear this is an area where the church is adrift again which gets to the very heart of what we are as the people of God. In the recent issue of Christianity Today magazine, September 16, 1996, there is an advertisement for a book, a half page advertisement. The lead for the advertisement says “Communicating the Gospel, Your Instruction Manual for the 21st Century.” The title of the book, Entertainment Evangelism: Taking the Church Public. And here’s what we are told. “We have the most important, the most exciting, most revolutionary news in all of human history. Therefore,” (always watch the therefore’s) “we must find the most creative, the most innovative, the most irresistible way to attract the attention of pre-Christian persons.” There is a lot going on with terminology today. What is a pre-Christian person? They used to be lost sinners. They used to be people on their way to hell. How do I know whether they are a pre-Christian person. Only God knows. But we are developing a whole set of politically correct expressions and words for the church. I gave an example in our study last week where one writer is talking about people of faith, people of faith. And that way you can include Jews and Catholics and Protestants. Because we are talking about people of faith. And people who are not of faith I guess are pre-Christians.

“We must find the most irresistible, the most creative, the most innovative way to attract pre-Christian persons. When we become committed to this task, then persons will line up to see, hear and experience the good news. Entertainment Evangelism shows you how to make the worship service an appealing, uplifting and yes entertaining experience.” Lyle Schaller in a recommendation for this book says, “If you want to reach people born since 1955 this is your instruction manual for the church in the 21st century.” We sometimes say we will change the methods. We won’t change the message. But it is important to understand that if we are using the wrong methods we will corrupt the message. One of the ways that some of this distortion gets into the church is under the guise of wanting to reach the lost. And who can be against reaching the lost. Don’t you want to see people saved? Don’t you want to see friends and family and neighbors come to salvation in Christ? Yes we do. Well then you don’t want to be against this. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. That’s a broad leap that we have made. Is the real problem our technique? If we come up with creative, innovative, irresistible ways to attract hell bound sinners to our worship service they are going to be lined up at the doors like they are at a sport event or some other entertaining activity. That in substance is a corrupting of the worship of the living God.


God in the Wastelands, a book written by David Wells that is well, well worth your time reading. And he makes a statement. “It is one of the remarkable features of contemporary church life that so many are attempting to heal the church by tinkering with its structures, its services, its public face. This is clear evidence that modernity [worldliness if you will] has successfully palmed off one of its great deceits to us convincing us that God Himself is secondary to organization and image.” And on he goes to say ”The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is not inadequate technique, insufficient organization or antiquated music. The fundamental problem in the Evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace is too ordinary, His judgement is too benign, His gospel is too easy, His Christ is too common.” What a terrible thing to write about the church. “God rests too inconsequentially upon the church.” We take God lightly. He is not the driving force if you will of our lives, the consuming passion of our ministries. And so we begin to corrupt the worship of God to attract people because we have turned worship from pleasing to God to being attractive to people. Martin Luther said concerning the people of his day, “Men approached God as if he were a shoe clerks apprentice.” A light view of God, a casual view of God.

You know as we consider God and his character, his person, we must keep two aspects of God’s person or character in balance. Two theological terms. The term immanence. The immanence of God refers to the fact the God is involved with His creation. He is involved with His creation. He has personally taken an interest and involved Himself in this world. And that goes to the point for you and I as believers, He has taken up residence in our lives. He is part of all that we are and all that we do. His immanence. The balance of that is his transcendence. The transcendence of God refers to the fact that God is separate and apart from His creation. He is the God who is greater than His creation. He is over all His creation. He is separate from His creation. And at different times in church history, the church will fall off one side or the other of this emphasis to like the deist who emphasized God was distant and separate from His creation. He created it and so to speak disappeared. But today we are almost totally out of balance with and emphasis on the immanence of God. Everybody wants to consider God and the aspect of His involvement in my life, His work in me and what He is doing. Well we must understand God is worthy of all our worship and all of our attention because He is the transcendent God. And if that was all there was to His He would still be deserving of worship. If we just emphasize the immanence pretty soon we slide into using God. Luther’s expression, like He were a shoe clerk’s apprentice. Everything is measured in light of what He is doing in my life how He is meeting my needs, how much strength I feel Him imparting to me. And we lose that sense of awe and wonder that he is the awesome God, above and beyond and overall. The God before whom I bow in adoration and wonder and complete respect.


Turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 4. There are a number of things that we could say about worship that we don’t have time to delve in at this time. As you turn to Revelation 4 let me remind you what Jesus said in John’s gospel in the fourth chapter and verse 24. There in His confrontation with the Samaritan woman He said those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, drawing attention that worship is not primarily a matter of external activity. Worship is a matter of what takes place in the heart and mind, in the inner life of a person. God is not primarily concerned about your external form. He’s concerned about the condition of your heart, your spirit as you worship Him. It must be in spirit and it must be in truth. We have the idea that anything and everything we bring to God that we call worship He will be delighted with because He is just so happy and pleased that we pay attention to Him. And He would be thrilled if we were just packed out here. It doesn’t matter what we are doing. We call it church and we pack the house. God is tickled pink and we reduce God to someone there just craving and needing our attention. But we must worship Him in truth according to the revelation He has given of Himself. And in verse 23, the immediately preceding verse in John 4, Jesus said, “These are the kind of worshipers that God is seeking.” He is not seeking to get as many people together in one place as He can. He is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with big crowds or anything especially good about little groups. I’m saying size is not the measure of quality in worship. We worship Him in spirit and according to truth.

In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 we have a glimpse if you will, the curtain is pulled back in heaven itself and we are ushered into the very throne room of God. And we are given a glimpse of how the worship of heaven takes place. And the worship that takes place on this earth is to be a reflection of the worship that takes place in heaven. The worship that starts first in an individual’s life. We come together as a body of believers, corporate worship at a time like this. This is to be a time when we join together as a body to express our worship. It has to flow out of our daily experience of worshiping God in all that we do. And we delight now to come and be able to if you will give expression to that personal and private worship that we enjoy throughout each day in a corporate and visible manner.

I just want to walk through Revelation 4 and 5 with you looking at some of the highlights of how the worship of heaven takes place so that we can be sure that we keep our worship centered on the God who is to be worshiped. We will just be hitting the highlights. Several years ago, in fact in the fall of 1992, we studied these two chapters in detail. And if you want to find out some of the interesting details that we have to pass over, you can get the tapes and it is well worth your time.

Let’s begin with chapter 4 where John is called up to heaven. The end of verse 1, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things.” Chapters 4 and 5 really prepare the way for the rest of the book of Revelation where God deals in judgement and final redemption for His creation. From what you are going to find in chapter 4 the emphasis will be on God the Father enthroned and worshiped as the creator of all things. In chapter 5 you will find the focus of worship on God the Son, the Lamb who has been slain who has redeemed fallen creation. So that both Father and Son, the presence of the Holy Spirit are the focal point of the worship of creation.


“What must take place after these things,” there is a sovereign determination of the unfolding of the events of this world and you and I as believers ought to be thrilled. You ought to have that underlined in your Bibles, “what must take place.” God rules. He is sovereign in all the details of all that happens. “Immediately, I was in the Spirit.” John didn’t physically go to heaven but he was transported in the Spirit in a vision into heaven itself. “And behold a throne was standing in heaven and One sitting on the throne.” This is none other than God the Father. “...One sitting on the throne.” The word throne is used 40 times in the book of Revelation. It is only used 15 times in all the rest of The New Testament. So indeed Revelation is the throne book of the Bible. In fact the word throne is used about 12 times in chapter 4. So this indeed is the throne chapter if you will. And God sitting on the throne emphasizes His sovereignty and authority over all. He sits enthroned in heaven. He is the one who rules over all. And interestingly we will see a manifestation of the presence of each of the members of the God-head, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son will be represented as the Lamb standing as if it had been slain. We will see Him in chapter 5. The Holy Spirit will be seen at the end of verse 5 in chapter 4 as the seven spirits of God and again in chapter 5 verse 6. So all three persons of the one God manifest their presence here.

God the Father sitting enthroned ruling over all. The glory and majesty of his appearance in verse 3. “Like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance and a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.” The majesty and awe and splendor of the very presence of Almighty God. Around the throne we are going to see a group gathered which are elders. And there is going to be thunder and lightening coming out of the throne. And then you come down to verse 6. We’ll back up, but come down to verse 6. “Before the throne there was like a sea of glass like crystal and in the center and around the throne [then will be the creatures.]” This sea of glass like crystal seems to emphasize what we were talking about. The transcendence of God. That God is unique and separate and apart from all else. Similar to Ezekiel’s picture of God in Ezekiel chapter 1 as he saw God enthroned.

And we must never lose sight of the fact that He is the God who is separate and distinct and apart from all His creation. And true as a result of His grace He is the God who is immanent, and He is part and parcel of all He has created in the right sense now. Not that He is part of creation in being a created being, but he has involved Himself throughout His creation. In a unique way, we as believers are temples of the Holy Spirit. He is personally indwelling me, but I must never reduce Him to the level of just my good buddy. There must be the awe and respect that He is due as the God who is apart and above all.

Move on. We will back up and pick up the glorious appearance, we want verse 4. “Around the throne were 24 thrones and upon the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their head.” We don’t have time to go into the details of this but my understanding is that the 24 elders are symbolic of the church that has been raptured and glorified in God’s presence. And if you get the tape on these verses we walk through the reasons why that seems to be the best, the most consistent interpretation. Now picture here, these 24 elders represent the church as it’s been glorified in the presence of God, you and I. The rapture has occurred as John views this. We are in the glory of God’s presence and we are offering Him our worship. So we have God the Father on the throne. We have the 24 elders representing the church in glory. We have the seven spirits of God at the end of verse 5 representing the Holy Spirit the completeness of His ministry. In verse 6 at the end of the verses we see four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. And these four living creatures are a class of angelic beings, I believe very similar to what we call the seraphim or the cherubim. They serve one of their functions is to lead the host of heaven in worship. We’ll see that in a moment. Also as you come into chapter 6 and you move into God’s pouring out His wrath and justice on the earth, we will see that they are also involved in administering God’s justice on the earth. So they are intimately involved in the worship and service of the living God. And that fits.


We won’t turn back there but in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah was given a vision of the throne room of God. He said he saw the Lord sitting on His throne, lofty and exalted, the train of his robe filled the temple. And in that description there are the seraphim in his presence. And they have six wings, three pairs of wings. And the seraphim in Isaiah 6 which seem to be the same as these four living creatures... We are told with one pair of wings they cover their face. With another pair of wings they cover their feet. And with another pair of wings they fly. What seems to be represented in this, these seraphim or living creatures serving in the presence of God? They cover their face representing or symbolizing their awe before God, the reverence and awe they have before the living God. They cover their feet, symbolic and representative of humility in the presence of God. And then with the pair of wings that they fly, they are ready to do the will of God, to be obedient. So the awe, humility and obedience that characterizes these heavenly beings that serve in the most intimate relationship to the throne of God, who will lead heaven in it’s worship remind us of what must characterize us as we come into the presence of God. With confidence yes but with awe, humility and a readiness to do His will.

They go on. Jump down to verse 8. “The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings [as the seraphim did in Isaiah 6] and night and day, day and night they do not cease to say holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” Very similar to what Isaiah recorded from the Seraphim in Isaiah 6. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the almighty who was and who is and who is to come.” And as these seraphim lead in the worship of heaven, where do we start? What is the substance of this worship? It is a declaration of the greatness, the majesty, the attributes of God Himself beginning with His holiness and an emphasis on that. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God.” His infinite holiness. He is holy in the sense He is separate from sin. So God is completely holy. By His grace we become holy in Christ and are to live lives separated from sin, devoted to Him. But He is holy in what He is in His very being. It’s one of the attributes of God. I have a bestowed holiness if you will, received by his grace. God in His very being is holiness. “Holy, holy, holy.” Now in worship that is geared to be entertaining, that unbelieving rebellious sinners will be comfortable with can we begin with a declaration of the absolute holiness of God?

And move on from there to the fact that He is the Lord God almighty. So not only do the living creatures declare His holiness, they declare His omnipotence. He is the Lord God almighty. All powerful, omnipotent. This word almighty is used as a title for God eight times in the book of Revelation and only used one time outside the book of Revelation. An emphasis that this is the sovereign, all powerful God. He not only sits on the throne, but He has all power to rule from that throne. And He is the God who was, and who is and who is to come. He is the eternal God. This is the eternality of God. He is the only God. He is the eternal God. This is the eternally holy, eternally powerful, eternally existing God. There is no other. And note here, this is how worship of heaven begins as we are introduced to it in Revelation chapter 4 by John. The living creatures who serve at the throne of God take the lead in the worship of heaven before God. And it begins with a declaration of His attributes. The majesty and wonder of this God.


I know but let’s get to the important stuff. What will He do for me? You know if this was a CNN time they would be sticking a microphone in. How do you feel about this worship? Did you enjoy it? Do you feel your needs were met? Did you feel comfortable? All of this resolved into what? God is wonderful. We go away. We meet people from other churches and they want to know well, what did you think about the worship? Did you enjoy it today? Do you feel like your needs were met? Did you get something? No, we ought to say, my God is wonderful. He is awesome. What a privilege I had to bow in His presence with others, to exalt Him, to praise Him. Yeah, but what did you get out of it? The awesome privilege of joining others in praising Him. This concept of worship has become almost totally foreign to our thinking even in the evangelical church.

And note how we go on in verse 9. “And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne to Him who lives forever and ever...” Note the procedure here. “When the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to Him on the throne, then the 24 elders fall down.” So that’s why I say these living creatures lead the way in the worship of heaven. And as they declare the glory honor and thanks due God, then the 24 elders... Here this is important. You and I are going to be part of this group represented here.

“They fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne.” “Cast their crowns before Him.” These are stephanos crowns. Two kinds of crowns in Greek, the diadem crown, that’s the crown of a sovereign ruler. The stephanos crown it the crown given for victories accomplished, for conquering. We the redeemed have been rewarded for our faithfulness in our service. But even those rewards are not for our glory. They are for His to be cast before His throne in worship. Our English word worship as most of you are familiar, comes from and old English word, worth ship because worship was viewed as declaring the worth of God, of acknowledging Him as worthy. You see worship by its very definition is totally God focused. That’s why I say we develop methods, techniques and plans that will attract people and we have corrupted worship before we have opened the door because we have made it man-centered. What will men and women like? What will make them want to come? They are not going to be interested to come and here about the attributes of God. They won’t line up to get in. Therefore we shouldn’t do it. Well, then we are not talking about worship. Because worship is God-centered whether you like it or not.


One of the old writers I was reading this week said he didn’t know how some people would be happy in heaven when they don’t like to worship on earth. Now we are trying to remake the church so that pre-Christian people described in Romans as those in a constant state of rebellion against God at enmity with God, by Paul in Ephesians as those living under the authority of the prince of the power of this air, Satan, will be comfortable.

Now here the living creatures lead the way and the glorified saints fall down. That’s why all the emphasis in worship on self, self-importance, self-love, self-esteem, self-development is a corruption of the worship of the living God. Where here do you find “self” coming to the floor? Stop the worship of heaven! My needs aren’t being met. Stop the worship of heaven! Nobody is paying attention to me. You say that would be absurd. Well, is not our worship as God’s people to be a reflection of heaven. What we do unique in the world is not to try to out-draw the rock performers or the sporting events. What we do unique in the world is manifest as light in the world the true worship of the living God. You can go to a lot of events for better entertainment but there is no place else you can go to see and observe the worship of the living God but in the assembly of God’s people. And tragically you can go to many of those services and not see a reflection of heaven’s worship either. Because it is man centered to make people comfortable, to meet needs. You say oh you don’t think that God ministers to your heart and spirit in worship. Sure He does. That’s a by produce of what happens in genuine worship. But when I make you the focus. When you make me the focus and God is pushed to the side, we no longer have worship. And everything unravels and the more it unravels the more we run to change our techniques, to alter our style, to adjust the peripherals. And down we spiral.

Verse 11, the declaration of the redeemed. This is what is on our lips represented by the 24 elders. “Worthy are you our Lord and our God. Worthy are You our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power. For You did create all things and because of Your will they existed and were created.” The focal point of our praise is God. He is to receive glory and honor and power. Why? He is the creator. You see here the first aspect of the emphasis on God is on His transcendence if you will. He is the creator. He created all things. And they were brought into existence by his will. This is why there is such a fanatical and intense opposition to the Biblical doctrine of creation. It had nothing to do with science. It has everything to do with hearts that are in rebellion against God. To acknowledge that a sovereign God has brought me and everything else into existence would mean that I have to bow under His authority. I will not do it. So we come up with all kinds of absolutely foolish ideas that there was just a big explosion and the marvelous complexity and intricacy of all that you see is the result of that explosion. Well, you go home and blow up your house and we will see what kind of order has come. Absolutely scientifically stupid.

So we see here all creation and incidentally all creation will worship. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess according to Philippians chapter 2 before all is said and done. Not because all have experienced the redeeming transforming work of this God in their life but because all have been created by Him and for Him. So you see I come and worship before Him for no other reason that He is the sovereign creator of all. Do I get anything out of it? Do I feel uplifted? Do I feel my needs are met? It’s irrelevant. He is the creator. You see the corruption of my worship of Him begins with my “self moving” into His place. I worship Him because of who He is. That’s the beginning point. It’s not like we’ve got a mutual pact here. I worship Him because I get something from Him and in return He gets my worship. He is the Creator. Therefore we must worship Him. If it went no farther, those who never experience His redeeming touch will worship Him some day not as redeemed creatures but as hell bound, hell deserving creatures.


We move into chapter 5. The emphasis here takes another step. Here God is not only worshiped as the Creator but as the Redeemer. As you might expect the focus here will be on the second person of the triune God head, God the Son, the Lamb. They are ready for creation, God’s work in creation to be brought to completion with a judgement on sinful creation and its final redemption. There is a seven sealed book which is sometimes called the title deed to creation. And it completes the final plan of God to bring us into a final kingdom as the redeemed and to do away with all that is sinful and vile. The central figure in chapter 5 is the lamb standing in verse 6. The middle of the verse, “a Lamb standing as if slain.” I think His position is very crucial, between the throne with the four living creatures who lead in the worship of God on the throne and the elders, a Lamb standing because “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus.” And here between the throne, between those who have been redeemed stands the Lamb. The sacrificial Lamb bearing the marks of His sacrifice as he showed the disciples in the upper room. The scars in His hands and side. “A Lamb standing as if slain” bearing the marks of His sacrifice. The word lamb is used of Christ 28 times in the book of Revelation. In the midst of judgement there is the constant reminder of the grace and mercy of God in providing a lamb to take away the sin of the world.

Verse 9, jump down. Verse 8, When the lamb takes the book to take possession of the creation that He has redeemed, “...the four living creatures, the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, [an instrument of praise and worship in the Old Testament] golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.” A reminder that our worship here on earth ascends into the very presence of God in heaven. “And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you.” At the end of chapter 4 of God the Father worthy are you now of the lamb worthy are you. Because there is one God eternally existing in three persons. An here the Lamb is worthy, “worthy to take the book, to break it’s seals for You were slain and did purchase for God with your blood men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.” The work He did in redemption was to purchase to pay the penalty, the price that sin demanded. “The wages of sin is death” but Jesus Christ paid that, to purchase us for God. You note the corruption that infiltrates the church. He didn’t just pay the price so we could be set free to go our own way. He purchased us for God with His blood. Now we are no longer our own for we have been bought with a price. Romans 6, we are no longer slaves of sin, we are slaves of righteousness.


“And you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God.” And they will reign upon the earth in anticipation for the kingdom that will be established in Revelation chapter 20. “And I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the numbers of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.” You see it’s not just the four living creatures and the 24 elders. But they are here representing and standing before the host of heaven, innumerable angels, innumerable members of the bride that has been raptured. They are all joined in this worship. “Myriads of myriads, thousands of thousands...” There’s no way to put a number on it. You have all heaven joined together here “crying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. A seven-fold inscription of praise to Him, and again His character, His worth. This one who is the might of God, the wisdom of God and so on. All belongs to Him. You note again this pattern is relentless that all worship is directed toward God, God the Father, God the Son and the presence of God the Spirit. And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying...” they anticipate the culmination when Philippians 2 will be fulfilled. “Every knee will bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” You know it’s like a building crescendo. The four living creatures then joined by the four elders then joined by the innumerable host of heaven. And it’s all what? “Blessing, honor, glory, dominion forever and ever to the one on the throne and to the Lamb, and the four living creatures kept saying amen, and the elder fell down and worshiped.” They are overwhelmed with a sense of awe in the presence of the awesome God. What a remarkable picture. All our worship is directed to our God.


This is why I become so terribly concerned with the emphasis in the church on things like seeker services, a consumer mentality, an entertainment focus. I want us to have the best music we can but I want it to be the best music to the glory of God. I want to preach the best sermons I can in obedience to the truth to the glory of God. I want to have as nice of facilities as we can to the glory of God but when these things become the focus, the ministry begins to unravel. It is not longer the people of God joined together if you will on their faces before God. But it is self-seeking, self-centered, self-focused people beginning the worship of themselves. And as the ultimate sin in Romans 1 where they worshiped the creation instead of the creator.

In a very fine book on worship written in the 1600's by Jeremiah Burrows which you would identify as a 17th century Puritan. “The reason why people come and worship God in a slight way is because they do not see God in His glory.” All true worship centers on the glory of God. You know yesterday I spent some time reading a book called The Martyrs Mirror that I would encourage you to dig deep, get thirty some dollars and purchase it. It’s about 1200 pages, double columns and it’s a history of the martyrs in the first 1500 years of the church. What I was impressed about as I read this was the focus of these who have given their lives in testimony for Christ. This is a fuller book than you will find in like Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Here you have letters that were written to wives or husbands or children by individuals being tortured or facing martyrdom. You know you read this and you say, “Would I have been faithful?” I’d like to think I would. But you know as I read the description and some of it gets rather graphic, I wonder if I wouldn’t have been tempted to say I’ll recant my faith and repent later. But you know what I was impressed sustained them, an unshakable focus on the living God. What a privilege it was to suffer with Him. You know if we were going through that today I fear the books written would be on how I stood up, what was going through my mind during that time of pain. But no their focus is on God’s greatness, on the majesty of our God, on what a privilege it is to bear testimony for Him even with my life. That only comes out of a life that is God focused, not partially God focused, a life that is God focused, to write your children and encourage them to stand true even when you know they are going to me martyred. You say well I wonder how I would do.


Well how you do starts with where you are. In your personal life Monday through Saturday would you say it’s a life of worship? And that wretched, miserable job that you have with the cussing and everything going around are you able to worship the living God and be thrilled to know that He sits on the throne, that He rules over all, that the majesty of His person pervades this creation, that you, a wretched, vile sinner have experienced His redemption and anticipate the glory of worship in His presence? You see when we come together Sunday morning, Sunday evening and other times as a group of believers, we are doing corporately what is to characterize us privately. You know this isn’t pin the tail on the donkey. Oh boy with the business of my life somewhere I’ve got to fit in worship. An hour and a half Sunday morning. No this is to be the flow of my life. This is what I am. This is what I will be for all of eternity. This is what we reflect before the world.

We don’t compete with entertainment. We don’t compete with interesting things. We offer something totally unique. Our desire is to hold before you the living God, the revelation He has made of Himself, the wonder of His person as the creator of all, the wonder of His work as the redeemer of all. And I want to invite you to turn from yourself to Him, to bow in His presence, acknowledge Him as God and Lord, believe in Him as your Savior. That’s what our worship is as the redeemed. What an honor, what a glory bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of the living God. What an honor and glorious privilege to literally join with the courts of heaven and bow in awe and humility and ready obedience in worship of the Creator who is our redeemer. Let’s pray together.

Thank You Lord for the majesty of Your person. Thank You for who You are. And Lord as we bow in honesty before You, many of us would admit that we came today not driven by the passion of continuing a week of worship in harmony with other believers. But we have come with minds filled with other things, with selfish concerns, with a desire to get it over with quickly. And in so doing we have corrupted the worship of the living God. Lord, I pray that Your truth will grip our hearts, that this glimpse into the throne room of heaven will stir us with a passion for worship, to recognize the high honor that has been bestowed upon us, that we should prostrate ourselves in Your presence and offer worship acceptable to You through Jesus Christ. Lord, that’s our honor, that’s our desire. That’s what we wanted to accomplish in our time together today. By Your grace may it be so. In Christ’s name, amen.

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