Live to Worship; Worship to Live. Part 1
In spite of the promises and presence of the Kingdom of God, the messed-up kingdom of the world is alive and well. What is the evidence? Well, in America, a corrupt government, a movement to cancel basic freedoms Americans have cherished and died to preserve, an America that is beginning to resemble a neo Marxist, soft-totalitarian country; deepening division and hatred, broadening cultural acceptance of sins like abortion, and a growing anti-Christ spirit and spirit of witchcraft in almost every facet of our society, including in some churches. We are living in a post-Christian world, a world in which New Age thinking has penetrated culture more than most of us realize. To me it seems like the Kingdom of God is under attack from every quarter. But God assured me, “My Church and My Kingdom will be victorious”. I believe that, but today I am asking God how I should respond to all I see around me, besides, of course, repent, pray and love (Love God = obedience; love others = service). His answer? Worship! Repentance sets the stage for worship. Prayer and love, including obedience and service, flow out of worship; as do joy, peace, and hope. When I worship, I feel tons better. And worship releases Holy Spirit power into the world. True worship is our secret weapon – worship and praise are the weapons of our warfare. Do you want to walk in more peace, more joy, more hope? Do you want to see God’s truth, justice, and righteousness break out in America? Then worship. What an exciting time to be alive! We get a ringside seat to the greatest show in our lifetime – the destruction of satanic spiritual forces by our all-powerful God, fueled, at least in part, by our worship. Hallelujah!
You might say, “Is that it, John? Is that all you have for me? Just worship?” Ok, two more things; First, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “Live not by lies”; and second, let’s use our God-given power and authority to deliver our nation from the spirit of witchcraft, for those who are called to this battle.
This post contains the notes of a sermon I preached on zoom. It is long, so I have broken it into 2 posts: part 1 worship; part 2 Psalm 150. If you want to read the entire sermon in one document, you can find it in the ‘Articles’ section of this blog.
“Come Let Us Bow Down in Worship, Let Us Kneel Before the Lord Our Maker” (Psalm 95: 6). Worship is the purest way to value God.
Worship and praise go together. True worship releases authentic praise; authentic praise leads into true worship. The two cannot be separated if they are true and authentic.
Worship and praise are connected. Praise flows out of worship. Here are two passages of Scripture that emphasize the connection between worship and praise:
· 2 Chronicles 20: 18, 19; 21: “Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice” (2 Chronicles 20: 18, 19 NIV). “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and praise Him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: Give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever” (2 Chronicles 20: 21 NIV).
· Revelation 19: 4, 5; 9, 10:” The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried, “Amen, Hallelujah!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you servants, you who fear Him, both small and great!” (Revelation 19: 4, 5 NIV). “But the angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” . . . At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is prophecy” (Revelation 19: 9, 10 NIV).
· True worship precedes authentic praise – the two are related; although as I wrote above, authentic praise can lead us into true worship. To better understand praise, we need to have a deeper understanding of worship.
· Worship is both an attitude and an action. It is not a feeling. It is not contingent on anything. We worship God because of His surpassing greatness and holiness. If God is to be the Lord, worship must have priority in our lives and the life of the Church. A church that does not have true worship is something, but it is not the church Christ died to create. Our relationship with God begins and ends with worship.
· We worship because He is God – not because of what He has done, but because of who He is. Even if we were in a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean with no rescue or land in sight, would we still worship Him?
· A vital feature of the early Christian community was their sense of being gathered together in worship. They were gathered into a unity of spirit by meeting together that transcended their individualism. Judaism and Christianity have always strongly emphasized corporate worship.
· “When we are truly gathered into worship, things occur that could never occur alone. There is psychology of the group to be sure, and yet it is so much more; it is divine interpenetration. This is what the Biblical writers called koinonia – deep inward fellowship in the power of the Spirit” (Celebration of Disciple, Foster, pg. 164).
· Writing about being truly gathered into worship, Foster writes: “There comes a divine melting of our separateness. In the power of the One Spirit, we become ‘wrapped in a sense of unity and of the Presence such as quiets all words and enfolds us within an unspeakable calm and interknittedness within a vaster life’. Such fellowship-in-worship makes vicarious worship via the media (read ‘virtual worship’ via the internet) tasteless and flat” (Celebration of Disciple, pg. 164).
These passages from Psalms 95 and 96 illustrate worship:
· “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is his, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care” (Psalm 95: 3 – 7 NIV).
· “Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord” (Psalm 96: 8 – 13 NIV).
· These psalms are calling for ‘wild worship’. We worship and rejoice in all circumstances because our joy is connected to worship and worship is not connected to external circumstances.
“We Worship when we honor with extravagant love and extreme submission. Worship means to kneel and bow down, lay face down before God as an act of reverence; to bow down before God and delightfully follow His orders and commands. Worship is the presentation of our entire being, ignited by the Holy Spirit, as a living sacrifice to God”.
· Worship is a life style – not just what we do on Sunday morning or Saturday night.
· True worship is both an attitude and an action. It is an attitude of a heart completely surrendered to God because He is everything. It is an action of bowing down in humility and submission from a heart that says, “Not my will, but yours be done” — and then following and obeying His will.
· True worship is marked by the priority of God in our heart and our lives. It is expressed through a lifestyle of holiness.
· True worship flows from a heart consumed and possessed by the Holy Spirit. It is the outflow of the fountain of living water in the Kingdom heart.
· Worship is to experience reality, to touch God’s Life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is a breaking into the Shekinah of God, or better yet, being invaded by the Shekinah of God – God’s glory.
· “Thus, if your lifestyle does not express the beauty of holiness through an extravagant and exaggerated love for God and you do not live with extreme submission to Jesus, then repent and make worship the priority in your life”.
· But God makes a promise to His worshipers – He will come and live in us, and we in Him. When we worship, He will come and inspect our heart and show us where we need to yield to Him. Worship transforms us, and makes us more like Jesus.
· Thomas said, “My Lord and My God”. This is worship!
· We worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4: 24). “True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4: 23, 24 NIV).
· “Worship is kindled in us only when the Spirit of God touches the human heart. Forms and rituals do not produce worship, nor does the disuse of forms or rituals. We can have the best liturgy and music, but we have not worshiped the Lord until His Spirit touches ours” (Richard Foster, Celebration of Disciple, pg. 158).
There is also false worship. Worship without the Spirit is legalism, also known as religion. Worship without truth (Jesus) is lawlessness, even the occult. And the occult is always demonic.
When we worship, we give God our adoration and attention. When we worship we change the world around us. True worship not only changes the world, it also changes us. Worship releases praise. One of the great psalms of praise is psalm 150 — the subject of my next post, part 2 of ‘Live to Worship; Worship to Live’.
Praising Him
John