Morning, everyone.
Morning.
That’s a good response. Where’s Jerry? Oh, I’m here. There’s Kenny. Yeah, don’t sit in the front row. It’s not bad; it’s just eleven, so we’re good.
Let’s just say a little prayer.
Lord, we want to thank You so much that we can gather on the first day of the week and remember You. Lord, it’s so great. It’s not worship; it’s remembering You that leads us to worship. Praise Your name. Pray You’d speak to us today and help us as we consider Your word and what You’d have to say to us. In Jesus’ name.
Okay, today we want to speak on the subject: worship God. I thought I would hand out a little outline.
I think I’ve said this before, but this isn’t just a cute trick. It’s something I do for my own benefit, because I’m just a little ADD and I don’t concentrate. All I want is for everybody to get the main point. You know? And the main point is: worship God.
My father always said, “Will you tell them what you’re going to tell them? Then you tell them, and then you tell them what you told them.” He did a lot of speaking. So, I’m going to tell you, “Worship God.” That’s what I’m going to tell you. Then the second part is, “Worship God.” And the last part is, “Worship God.” It’s a wonderful thing: worship God.
I’d like to read a few verses. The first verse is Revelation 22:8-9, kind of the end of the Bible, you know—right at the end.
I John am he that heard and saw these things.
And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel that showed me these things.
And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them that keep the words of this book: worship God.
Don’t worship angels; don’t worship other things. Worship God, at the end of the Bible.
Then another verse: John 4:24. You can correct me whenever I need correcting. Thanks, Jathan.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Then Job 42:5-6:
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee:
Wherefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.
So Job, after all he went through, repented in dust and ashes. He humbled himself before the Lord, and His dealings made way for him to acknowledge and worship the Lord.
In Hebrews 11:21:
By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
Might we end our days, having gone through everything and being humbled, and worship on the top of our staff?
Obviously, we could talk about many, many verses about worship. But I’ve been exercised about this matter of worship for a good bit now. We live in days of turmoil. The nations are in an uproar, the peoples devising a vain thing, and we can get undone by it. But I do think there is a proper response. I think a proper response in the days we live in is to worship God. In the midst of it all, worship God.
We’ve been taught—who’s familiar with the term means of grace? Means of grace.
What does “means of grace” mean? Things you do to get the grace of the Lord—Bible reading, maybe the Lord’s table, the word of God, prayer. That’s good. There are things that bring you to the Lord, and what He has given us to bring us to Him.
I wrote down prayer, Bible reading and study, breaking bread, obedience, trust, and surrender. Anyway, I want to tell you that I’ve never heard of worshiping God as a means of grace. So it seems to me that worshiping God is a means of grace. It’s a great thing that we’re able to do to deliver us from ourselves and this world, and to deliver us unto God.
We know that we gather like this on the first day of the week to remember the Lord, and people often say this is worship. Really, this is breaking bread, you know, and breaking bread causes us to remember the Lord, and that results in worship. So there is a corporate, collective worshiping of God that’s really wonderful.
But in addition to that, what was really on my mind today was worshiping God at home, wherever you are, twenty-four-seven. Worship God individually, each one of us, and worship God as a family. We’re able to worship God around the clock. In days of trial, we need to remember to worship God in the midst of it.
I had an outline from one of the verses I read:
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
—John 4:23-24
So the outline is:
Worship God in spirit and truth.
It may seem redundant to ask what worship is, but I thought we should talk a little bit about it. I got some words out of Webster’s: worship, worthiness, respect, reverence paid to a divine being; reverence offered to a divine being or supernatural power; also an act of expressing such reverence.
It’s good to exercise our spirits and express something—not just look further in, but look up to the Lord.
We can worship people and things, but today we want to talk about worshiping God: God the Father, as revealed through Jesus Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit expressing that worship. Worship God.
Respect, reverence, worthiness, admiration, esteem, devotion, expression. Praise God. Praise God with our mouths, with our spirits.
Vine’s has a little discussion about worship. It speaks of making obeisance—humbling yourselves and worshiping God, doing reverence, doing homage.
Vine’s notes that recipients of worship can be God, Christ, man, the dragon, the beast, or idols. So, guess what? We need to remember whom we worship and where we have given our hearts—not to the world and not to all these things. Worship God the Father through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.
Vine’s concludes that worship is nowhere defined in the Bible, just like glory. It is not confined to praise. It is direct acknowledgment to God of His nature, attributes, ways, and claims, whether through the outgoing of the heart in praise and thanksgiving, or by deeds that express such acknowledgment.
Service, too, is rendered as worship. Remember Romans 12:1. After the whole gospel is spread through the first eleven chapters of Romans, he says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
Worship God with our lives—with how we live and how we invest our lives.
These are just some general thoughts on worship. Man was created to worship.
One of the reasons we’re so distraught before we’re saved is that we can’t talk to God; we can’t worship God. We’re the only creature created by God—spirit, soul, and body—meant to worship Him. That capacity was lost at the fall. We weren’t able to, but we have been saved. We have been redeemed. We have been forgiven and born again. We can worship God with a clear conscience and a new spirit.
Worship God. Approach God and worship Him. It’s a great privilege.
Worship is not limited in time and space. Obviously, we’re blessed to assemble on the first day of the week, but we can worship and praise God wherever we are.
Think of the Psalms. It seems to me that the psalmists worshiped God in the middle of wherever they were. They started in a low place, distraught, and in the middle of it they worshiped God.
The other thing I want to mention is individual worship and worship as a family. Have a family altar. That’s really powerful. There’s really power in worshiping as a family.
Sharon and I went up to the Valley a couple of weeks ago and visited the Brethren and Mennonite Heritage Center. We were thinking about how the Anabaptists came down that valley from Pennsylvania, where they fled persecution. Mac didn’t scratch the surface of how much these people were persecuted. He spared us, but it was terrible.
They came here, got established, and came down to the beautiful Valley of Virginia. They’re still out there—still a lot of dairy farmers and so forth. They had an old log cabin, an old log house, on the site that had been moved there. Inside, there was a story about family life.
One of the centers of their family life was the family altar. They may not often have had a big place to meet and worship, so they gathered in the kitchen, living room, or dining room. They had a wall with a pulley so they could raise it and get more people in. But they really had a family altar. They really emphasized singing. Someone told me that’s true to this day among them. It was a great testimony of a family altar.
I have a personal testimony about a family altar. I lived in the old Chicago suburbs, in a little subdivision built around the end of World War II—maybe it was before. Across the street was the Bennett family. One of my good friends running around in my youth was Don Bennett. He went to Lutheran school; he didn’t go to public school.
I used to go into the driveway with Mr. Chester Bennett and work on his old cars. That’s where I learned some of the car stuff. It was a gravel driveway, you know. You didn’t have to worry about oil leaks when you hit a gravel driveway because you couldn’t see them.
For some reason, I would often end up at their house before they had quite finished dinner. They’d always invite me in and give me food, just like a stray cat.
Chester Bennett—you couldn’t leave the table. He got the Bible out, read verses in the evening, and then prayed. Then he got his bowl of ice cream and went to watch TV. But anyway, to this day, I suspect I’ll never know whether that family is one of the reasons I got saved. I spent time around them, and they were in the Word, cracking that old family Bible open.
So it’s really important. Family altar is important.
We have corporate worship too, and I have to tell you, corporate worship—the way we gather—is really a blessing, to be around the Lord. Do you remember when we came back together after COVID, how awful it was being separated? There is a difference in being together and worshiping the Lord.
To me, it goes beyond a heap of worshipers. This isn’t a pile of people coming to worship. You’ve often heard it, but it’s a symphony; it’s an orchestra. There’s something about everybody worshiping together in one spirit that is really wonderful, and I believe it really honors the Lord.
This thing around the table is part of our testimony, but it’s not an individual thing. When we come, we need to be very sensitive to how the Spirit is leading—not just throw in a song or throw in something. The body of Christ is living stones, but they are built together. So when we come, let’s be sensitive to what the Spirit is saying.
It’s also important that we be here for the opening. How many people think I would mention that because I’m a rules guy and grouchy? I spent my life as an auditor and a CPA. That’s not it.
Really, it’s important to be together to hear the opening and to see what tune the Lord is calling for us to sing that day. It’s really important, as the Spirit leads. We are led by the Spirit. The band conductor, the orchestra conductor, is the Holy Spirit. So it’s important to be here when we start the song—when He taps the baton.
Consider the person doing the opening as tapping the baton. We also send out the verses that we’re going to open with each time. So you have band practice at home, you know. You can practice and be prepared mentally and spiritually.
Another general thing: worship and warfare. Did you know there is a battle—a huge spiritual battle—over worship? Who will get the worship? All eternity is about who will get the worship. The enemy wants worship.
Remember that we’ve been reading in Luke. In Luke 4, after the temptation in the wilderness, the enemy challenged the Lord.
And the devil said unto Him, To Thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
If Thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be Thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
—Luke 4:6-8
We live as part of this world, as a cosmos—a world system dominated by the enemy. We know more than ever, from what we see going on in the world, that it is dominated by the enemy. We need not give in to it. Put the Lord first.
This cosmos, this world system, is after our souls. It is after our souls; it wants to own us.
I know we’ve said this before, but years ago Michael Woods was really struggling while working for IBM. That was when IBM was the place to work. They were trying to drive him, and he went to Stephen Kaung and said, “Brother, they want me to give 110 percent.” Stephen looked at him and said, “Give them 50.”
So anybody who thinks you’re being worked to death or that too much is being demanded of you: give them 50 percent.
Now I’m on letter B: worship God. We are all created with that capacity to worship God. We said before that it had been limited, but now we’ve been born again, and we can worship God with our hearts.
I thought about how it is possible to worship worship. Does that make sense? “I really want to get to worship because I’m going to feel better after that. That’s a good song. I want to sing it; that stirs my soul.” Be careful. Don’t worship worship.
There’s a reason we don’t have a worship team and a worship program: because we want to worship God. We’re not attendants. We’re not coming to a performance. We’re participants, part of the orchestra, part of the symphony.
Ephesians 2:13 says:
But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.
We were without God in the world, but no more. The way is clear for us to worship God.
In Hebrews 10:19-22:
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
By the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
And having a great priest over the house of God;
Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water.
Let us approach God. How can we not worship the Lord when we approach God and see Him?
God needs to be the object of our worship. If we see Him, how can we do anything but fall down and worship Him? I just want to remember a couple passages where people in the Bible saw the Lord, worshiped, and fell down. What’s the topic of this message? Worship God. Thank you. Just making sure you’re paying attention.
Isaiah 6:1-4 is a very familiar passage, a wonderful passage.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then Isaiah said:
Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
—Isaiah 6:5
Isaiah saw the Lord, and he was humbled. He fell on his feet.
Another verse is Exodus 3:1-6. This is the burning bush. Starting with verse 4:
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And He said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
Moses humbled himself. That’s the Old Testament, and he could not look at the face of God; he would be consumed. But Moses humbled himself. He saw the Lord in his spirit.
In Acts 7:2-4, Stephen’s testimony says:
Hearken, brethren and fathers. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
And said unto him, Get thee out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran: and from thence, when his father was dead, God removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Abraham saw the God of glory and responded. He saw the Lord, and he worshiped God by his life—by going out, not knowing where. If he had not come to this land, we’d be nowhere, if he had not been obedient.
You know the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was distracted with all the preparations, but Mary was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.
The Lord Jesus said:
Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
—Luke 10:41-42
Mary worshiped God. I don’t want to give Martha a bad rap. She was preparing, you know; she was being responsible. I’m not sure she deserves all the bad things that have been said about her. But it was Jesus who said, worship God.
The third point, letter C, is worship in spirit. We can worship in our souls. We can get stirred up in our natural strength. But if we’re looking at God as new creatures in Christ, we need to worship in spirit.
We were created spirit, soul, and body, and the spirit is meant to have the preeminent place in our lives. Because of that, we’re able to fellowship and commune with God in spirit. Unfortunately, that capacity was lost at the fall, but it has been regained. We have been born again. Our spirits have been revived, and the Holy Spirit has come to live within us.
We always think of Nicodemus and the Lord’s dialogue with Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” We need to know that we are born again and respond to the Lord in spirit. So, you must be born again. Do not be afraid to stand afar off, but worship God.
My burden is really that in days of trial we not use them to get undone and consumed, but that we use them to come to the end of ourselves and realize there is something we can do about it. The thing we can do is worship God.
Paul came to the end of himself. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, he says:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
Pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God. Praise the Lord. We go through trials to be set free from our natural strength and know that we have a treasure in earthen vessels and rely on the power of God. Worship in spirit.
Paul said again in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Make way for the Spirit.
There is another thing I want to say about Paul. We make way for the Spirit, but there is a way to worship God by keeping our attention on things other than this world.
Colossians 3. The Colossians had error. What was the Colossian error? Gnosticism—getting away from the Lord. But Paul didn’t try to address and dissect the error. He just presented the Lord and got everybody’s attention turned to the Lord.
Colossians 3:1-3 says:
If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Set our minds on the things above. The things of earth clamor—oh my. Morning till night, they clamor. Get up and check the news. That’s bad, you know. Then check your email, then check your Twitter account, and whatever else you’ve got—your Facebook—and your day’s half gone, and your attention is everywhere else. Speaking from experience. I don’t have Facebook or Twitter or any of that. I do have email.
We are responsible for where we spend our time and where we set our minds. We set our minds on things above, we see Christ seated at the right hand of God, and all we can do is worship God. Set our minds on things above.
One of the key verses I want to read about worshiping in spirit is Ephesians 5:15-21.
Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
Subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
This was another admonition toward the end of the letter to the Ephesians—just brotherly advice to the saints there. Be filled with the Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, always giving thanks.
Worshiping in spirit is a wonderful thing. How often in the Psalms do we see the psalmist start in a low place and end up worshiping God?
Years ago, Bobby Greco told me that at one time the vast majority of his medical practice was counseling preachers and pastors because they were so depressed. The demands on them were so great, and they were being asked to do a job that no man can do.
What he told me was that when we are singing, we are exercising our spirits in song, and we come above the natural. It is very difficult to get depressed when we are singing and making melody to the Lord. Our minds are set on things above.
I love singing. I was born to sing. I was born. But it’s a good thing when we sing.
There was a popular music artist named Carole King when I was young. Anybody who knows who Carole King is, raise your hand. Oh, you’re a music person.
One of her songs says, “When you’re down and troubled, and you need a helping hand, and nothing, nothing is going right, just call out my name.” So when we’re down and troubled, worship the Lord. Look to the Lord and worship Him. That’s the name we call out.
Matthew 26:30 says that at the Last Supper, as they were leaving, He was going to be betrayed:
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out unto the mount of Olives.
After singing a hymn. A difficult place, and they sang a hymn—the most difficult place of all.
In Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas were in prison. They were in the inner prison with their feet in stocks. About midnight, in the inner prison with their feet in stocks, not sleeping and not getting mad:
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
When you can’t sleep, sing a song. Praise God in the middle of the night—the night watches.
Who thinks they have a difficult time singing, or don’t like to sing when we’re together? How many are loath to sing because they don’t want people to hear them?
All I can tell you is that a big percentage of the room here is half deaf. Don’t worry about it. Do not think about what other people think about your singing, because the Lord doesn’t care about your vocal cords. He’s interested in a song in your heart, and you’ll be set free. Make melody in your heart unto the King of kings. Sing at home.
How many people know about the Christ in Song app? A few people know. All the songs in Christ in Song are in that app. A lady in California played the piano accompaniment for all the hymns, and Mr. Jack Cox—technophobe that he is—took that and converted it to an app.
So you can get all these tunes. It’s a great tool. If you don’t know a song, if you can’t carry a tune, you can adjust the key and the pace of the song—everything that suits you.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he was in jail. He was in prison again, writing to this church that he was so close to and loved so much. What would you say if you were in jail? What would be your prayer?
I wrote my prayer down: “Oh Lord, this is terrible. It is just the enemy trying to take me out. I pray that You will get me out of here soon. I can’t stand this any longer.” No. Paul rejoiced.
Philippians 2:18 says:
And in the same manner do ye also rejoice, and rejoice with me.
Philippians 3:1 says:
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.
Rejoice. Say it out: rejoice. Exercise your voice and your spirit and say, “Rejoice.” Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Rejoice in the Lord always—in spirit. Rejoice in spirit.
Okay, D, the last one: truth. We live in a day that has been called what? Post-Christian? Post-truth? Right is wrong, and wrong is right, and the world believes it.
Thank God we have our Bibles. It’s wonderful. We have the word of God to keep our heads on straight. His word anchors us because it leads us to the Lord. The Bible is definitely words, but it is also God expressed.
John 1:1-4:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
When we are meditating on and reading the word of God, we see the Lord, and then we can worship Him.
Jesus said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
—John 14:6
So we worship God in spirit and truth.
Hebrews 11:6 says:
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.
Come to God through His word. We come to God through His word.
We are helped so much by this matter of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. As we are singing hymns, psalms, and choruses, we need to be thinking. Some of them are familiar, so we can just sing them, you know, but think about what they say. We are exercising our spirits, remembering the Lord in our songs and singing.
If you are singing a song and it doesn’t sound quite right, you need to be careful. The Psalms are pretty hard to get too far off, you know, because they are the Bible. But with hymns and choruses, we need to think about what they are saying and not just take them as a good feeling. We need to see that they are accurate according to the Bible and that we can worship God through them—not just feel good about things, but worship God through the choruses.
Making melody in our hearts in accordance with truth. The truth of God is revealed in His word.
Worship God. Worshiping God is so great—such a deliverance for us.
We are living in tumultuous times, crazy times. It is often said, “This is the new normal.” Don’t accept it as the new normal. I don’t know if we will ever get back to the old way. It would be nice if we would, but it is not the new normal. Normal is not to be had in this world. Set our hearts on the Lord.
To help us keep our minds—our whole person—anchored, we are able to worship God. We were lost, unable to approach God and worship Him, but we have been saved. We have been quickened in spirit, and we have the Spirit within us to worship God.
The enemy is after worship. He is after the worship. So we need to set our minds on the things above in His word and be set free from going under the stronghold of the enemy.
When we set our minds on the things above, we see the Lord, our spirits are exercised, and we can speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with our hearts unto the Lord, and play our part in the symphony. No clanging cymbals—just all of us being members of the great chorus unto God.
We will sing hymn number 72.
You do practice, guys. Thank you.
Let’s pray.
You made us instruments. You’ve given us a spirit, and You’ve given us a heart to worship You. We thank You that we don’t have to live our days with our hearts and minds set on this fallen world, but we can set our hearts and minds on the things above, where Christ is. You would put a song in our hearts. Praise Your name, Lord.
Father, we thank You. Jesus Christ—to worship God. We thank You, Lord. You were the sacrifice.