O Worship the King

There is, somewhere between the showmanship of TV evangelists, and the deadness of many churches today, a genuineness of worship that excites the child of God, and warms the heart of God.  Worship that is boring is, at the least, meaningless.   Worship that is merely a well-performed show is sinful. Neither comes close to what will happen in heaven, and through all eternity.

I often think of those people who find excuse after excuse to miss worship services.  Some of that may be attributable to poor worship leadership, which inevitably means boring services.  Often, however, I would venture it means a misunderstanding of the responsibilities and privileges in worship, and therefore choosing something else as important over worship.  The sad conclusion to be drawn is that, If you don't like worship here on earth, heaven will be a disappointment!

So…what about worship here on earth?  What should it be like?  What are the signs that you have truly been in a worship service?  There are several key indicators:

Spontaneous Worship which Praises God

The second terror is past, but look, the third terror is coming quickly.  Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven:  “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”  The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.  Revelation 11:14-16

In a declarative thunder the angels sing the praises of God, and announce the settled fact that all kingdoms of the earth belong to God.  George Fredrick Handel took this text for his magnificent work,  The Messiah.  He had shut himself up without any outside contact, wishing to worship God without distraction.  Inspired and overwhelmed at the thought of the Christ who shall reign for ever and ever, he wrote the whole piece in less than a month!  This is a spontaneous declaration of praise.  True worship declares the wonder of God's mercy, grace, power, and love.  Has there been that in your worship this morning?

The twenty-four elders, representing the saints of all time, spontaneously respond to the praise of the angels.  They fall on their faces, prostrate before the throne.  That’s a difficult concept for many Western Christians.  Our fierce allegiance to political freedom has made bowing of any kind absent in our culture.  We may use words to deliver approval or disapproval, but praise demands full-body participation.

Our demonstration of worship should not be so tied to performing well; it should flow spontaneously from a heart that has decided to worship his Lord.  That doesn't rule out pre-planning in worship.  The planning allows that we have decided to worship, but the offering of our worship can alter the plan.  Spontaneity is God breaking into our plans, and us being ready to hear him.  Has there been in your worship this morning spontaneity which praises?

Singular Worship which Glorifies God

And they said, “We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.  The nations were filled with wrath, but now the time of your wrath has come.  It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants the prophets, as well as your holy people, and all who fear your name, from the least to the greatest.  It is time to destroy all who have caused destruction on the earth.”  Revelation 11:17-18

O Lord God, the Almighty is the name offered up in worship.  Singular worship means the dogmatism which is not afraid to declare there is only ONE God!  It does not offer acceptance for other Gods or worship systems. 

There is no room to glorify any other God when it comes to Jesus! 

Singular worship means without apology.  We don't bring New Age nonsense into the church of Jesus.  We don't buy the Age of Aquarius, and horoscopes.  We don't buy phrases like:  Well, we're all trying to get to the same place.  We're all serving the same God.  That's heresy!  It smells like smoke out of the pit of hell! 

True Christianity doesn't make room for any other gods!  Jesus taught with authority because He was (and is) God!  Have you recognized that in your worship this morning?

According to John the nations get very angry over the fact that Jesus is God, and that He has great power, and reigns.  Why is that?  Because in the end it means Satan, the Beast, and his false prophet, along with untold millions of his demons, and all human beings who reject Jesus Christ as Lord are going to be deposed, stripped of power, and cast into the lake of fire.  Beloved, there are only two sides of the eternal war.  You can have faith in this world, and Satan, who is the god of this world, or you can trust in Jesus, the true coming Lord of all life. 

A word of caution:  There is no Switzerland, no neutrality in this war.  If you try to sit on the fence, you'll find quickly that there no fence.  There is only a dividing line, the Word of God – and it is too sharp to sit on that blade! 

Singular worship means Jesus, and only Jesus!  Is He the only object of your worship this morning?  Are you glorifying Him?

Significant Worship

Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple.  Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and roared, and there was an earthquake and a terrible hailstorm.                     Revelation 11:19

Worship is bowing your life to the glory of God.  If there is one thing we seek when we come to worship, it is the vision of God.  We want to see Him, hear from Him, touch the hem of His garment.  Do we really?

Isaac Rankin says that just outside his window is a large wire which carries a heavy current of electricity for light and power.  It is carefully insulated at every pole and is out of common reach. "However," he says, "if I could lean out far enough to grasp it, death would be as swift as a lightning stroke.  Yet the doves in my neighborhood suffer no harm when they perch on it.  They fly from my windowsill, where I sometimes feed them, and preen in safety and contentment on the cables.  The secret is that when they contact that wire, they touch nothing else.  My danger would be that, should I attempt to reach out and do so, the walls of my house would act as a ground, and the current would turn my body into a channel through which the electricity would flow in damaging power.  Because they rest entirely upon the wire, they are unharmed. 

So God would have us seek our safety in complete surrender to His power and love.  It is when we reach one hand to Him while still holding fast to some forbidden thing with the other that we are in danger."

Worship can only be satisfying if we can stand in the presence of Holy God without being condemned of sin.  Otherwise it is like grabbing on to a high voltage wire, while standing in the bath water. 

How can one stand in God's presence and not be condemned for sin?  Only by trusting in the One who died for your sins.  Then there is no reason to be punished for them! 

Accept Jesus today, and stand now – this moment – before the Lord God Almighty who reigns forever and ever. 

Stand clean.  Stand forgiven.  Worship spontaneously.  Worship until you're satisfied.  You'll never stop!

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture from The New Living Translation