Revelation 5.9-10, 12-13 Theme Worship 10.30 am 22nd Oct 2006
And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9-10 NIV)
In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!" Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!" (Revelation 5:12-13 NIV)
What is worship?
Worship is a thankful response to God. It is not a repayment to Him, by us, for our hoped for salvation or granted prayer requests.
Worship is thanking God for the His blessings in our lives, praising Him for who he is and what he does, and obeying (submitting our lives to) Him.
What is Correct Worship?
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” says Jesus in (John 4:24)
To worship God correctly we must know the God we worship. An intimate relationship is a must. To know how he wants you personally to worship Him, you must know Him. It must be genuine, and real.
But to genuinely worship God you must know WHY you are worshipping Him.
Why worship? Because God is WORTHY.
Last week Dave asked us to think of the things we wanted to thank God for. Thanking God for blessings is one aspect of worship.
Praising God for who He is and What he has done is another.
He is the creator of the universe.
One evening, I had four acorns on my desk. One was clean, shiny, mainly brown with paler patches. Another two, not quite the same in shading with small but different cracks; both just showing the nut inside.
“Why didn’t God just clone ever acorn?”, I wondered. He has the wisdom, and authority to make each different, so presumably he enjoys variety.
The fourth acorn had been split in two, revealing a colourful nut which was bright pink at one end and cream in colour at the other.
God makes beauty even where it is, not normally seen – in the hidden places the Bible calls them.
I haven’t got enough acorns for every one here. So I would like you all to have a conker, to examine, think about and take home with you.
Please sit quietly as we pass them round. Take a prayer book mark and conker from the basket please. Also listen to this worship song by Jules Riding “Worthy is the Lamb”. (CD Track 4)
Conkers grow into horse chestnut trees which can reach 75 feet in height and live for hundreds of years.
God has been re-producing the miracle of those parent trees for thousands of years from a tiny conker. Why? Because God LOVES trees, flowers, leaves, berries, and all of His creation.
God beautifully made, loves, sustains all the special seeds that He choose to be His trees.
Isn’t God worthy of our praise?
Just look at the one you are holding in your hand.
Push out any thoughts of, ‘what else you should or could be doing’. Tell yourself, ‘I am going to spend time thinking about the wonder of God’s world’. Thinking and praising God the creator and sustainer of the universe THE Most Important thing to do.
Me sit Down on hard chairs until
3 mins 52 secs track finishes. Stand.
ASK: Are there any people who would like to share their thoughts and praises of God - that have come to mind?
. . . . . . God beautifully created, loves, and sustains all his creation. That includes you.
Isn’t God worthy of our praise!
Just think of what different athletes can do with their bodies. Marvellous isn’t it. Just think God created people from dust.
Actually think about what your body is doing at the moment. Your stomach is sorting out breakfast. That drink you had is now passing round your body into your blood supply and cleansing cells. Light and sound are entering your head and being translated by your brain.
And you are growing. No! I don’t mean fatter. I mean your hair is growing and cells are being renewed. No matter how sorry for yourself you may be feeling, especially if you skipped breakfast, God is at work! Isn’t God worthy of our worship?
So we praise our God for what he does. He is our creator, provider and sustainer. We can also praise Him for being our saviour, deliverer, redeemer, defender, shepherd.
We can praise him for what he is - Almighty God, Prince or Peace, King of Kings, our shield and strength, the judge, our righteousness, the Holy One. . .
When you have a opportunity make a list of what God deserves your praise for, and leave a gap so that you can add to it later.
True Worship is showing and telling God that you LOVE Him.
So true worship requires your love of GOD.
If you truly love someone you want to please them, and you want a relationship with them.
Jesus said "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15 NIV)
He asks us to confess, repent, and then renounce any sin we may have committed. Renounce means reject. Honestly dislike and never want to do it again.
He asked us to do this, because to come before God we have to be righteous. Jesus purchased righteous for his friends when he died on the cross.
“With your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language”, says today’s passage from Revelations 5. In which Jesus is the Lamb that was slain.
How can we worship God?
The most obvious way people worship God is by singing worship songs, or playing musical instruments, during a church service or some other time. Listening in agreement to such songs, or prayers of worship is also a common way of worshipping in churches. Dance, praying in tongues, preaching, leading services are also worship.
If you happen to be the one operating the song projection software, or sound desk, and are having difficulty, you may not feel close to God, but if your motivation was to help others to worship God, then that is what you are doing. Worshipping God!
When worshipping God at home some people kneel, some lie flat on the floor face down, others lift their hands or bow their heads. On occasions people cry, others laugh, some dance, some shout their words of thanks and praise.
Others quietly whisper in tongues. Some people close their eyes, but others would just fall asleep. Some focus their eyes on a candle or another object, which they use as an aid to worship. Really it doesn’t matter. God sees the heart.
Work - paid or otherwise can be worship. If you are doing a job to the best of your ability to glorify God. That is worshipping God.
Giving gifts to others can also be worship. If you are giving to bless them and God.
Financial giving is worship. In fact until you start to give so that it hurts, I have heard it said, you haven’t really started to worship.
When worshipping at home or elsewhere there will be times when you feel really close to God and times when you feel nothing. It is important to believe by FAITH rather than examining how you feel. Just as you know you LOVE others such as your children, parents, spouse, but you make not always LIKE them. What is important is that you worship God in faith and love.
Relationship is the major part of love and worship. . .
Balance in life is important
Remember God created day and night. He created different seasons of the year, and some plants flower at what may seem odd times to us.
Our bodies have their own individual rhythm. You may be someone who finds you want to wake and worship God at 5 am or you may want to start to worship at 11 pm; knowing that if you continue until way past midnight, and then fall asleep, the alarm will wake you in the morning.
You are an individually created person needing to work, rest, worship, eat and exercise.
The important thing, is to balance your life. Which hopefully includes daily worship. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t worship at a time when you think you should, but also ensure you don’t squeeze God out of your diary.
If you are feeling far from God despite trying to worship him you may simply need to rest.
The prophet Elijah, who you can read about in 1 Kings was very close to God. His prayer on one occasion restored the life of a child, "O LORD my God, please let this child's life return to him." (1 Kings 17:21)
After three years of drought, he poured precious water over an animal sacrifice and asked God to send down fire and accept the sacrifice. He did this in front of those attempting a similar sacrifice to pagan gods.
Elijah’s sacrifice was accepted, and he then prayed for rain. Which came! His enemy was non to happy and Elijah ran miraculously fast away.
But all the physical, mental and spiritual exercise exhausted Elijah. Exhaustion made him feel he was, the only righteous person alive, and that even God couldn’t save him. So he thought he might as well die straight away. (1Kings 19).
His depression, his feelings were the result of exhaustion, and not HIS LACK of correct WORSHIP or God’s failure. God gave him what he needed food and rest.
Don’t make worship into WORK. Unpleasant never ending work. God wants you to have joy.
Are you living an unbalanced life? As psalm 36 repeatedly says, “His steadfast love endures forever”, God sustains us.
But sustaining us needs our co-operation. If we gobble our food and go out, or forget to eat.
Maybe drink too little to avoid going to the loo, or find it difficult to actually go to bed. If we push time with God and other relationships out of our day.
Do any of these things and we will suffer the results physically, mentally and spiritually.
We are invited by God to do more than just survive, but flourish. To have life in all its fullness. Doesn’t that thought make you want to worship our WORTHY GOD?
God is the CENTRE of my life. He is in the centre of your life. He is at the centre of every unbelievers life- they just don’t realise it!!. He is the centre of ALL life.
And what is wonderful is that HE LOVES ME, He LOVES you, he loves us ALL. He loves us all in different ways, according to the unique way he made us.
YOU and only YOU can love God in the unique way he created you to LOVE and WORSHIP him in. Isn’t that wonderful. Only you can worship God in your unique way, and God delights in your unique love and worship.
But When is worship, not worship?
When you are just going through the motions. You may be singing worship songs in church, praising God in a quite place at home but you have absolutely no intention of obeying God in any other way.
In the OT God complains about the peoples worship (that was prayers and sacrifices) because they looked genuine but there was no love behind the acts.
It isn’t worship says God through Isaiah when
"These people say they are mine. They honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.” (Isaiah 29:13 NLT)
You can worship God out of fear. You may believe if you don’t worship him he will punish you. In which case you don’t yet know God. Or you can worship him because you LOVE Him.
There is a reward for worship… God says
Isaiah 56:6 "I will also bless the Gentiles who commit themselves to the LORD and serve him and love his name, who worship him”
but wanting to receive a blessing can’t be a motivation for worship.
It is important to pray for ourselves and others because we are commanded to do it. But make sure the time you spend with God isn’t just a shopping list for yourself and others.
Would you feel more like giving a gift to a child who kept asking, “Can I have” or to the one who tells you everything and says meaningfully, “I love you”? Remember - Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. (Psalms 37:4 NLT)
And -
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)
“What is it that you really, really want”? Jesus says what you should really, really want is Him. So worship!
We should be seeking God Himself. His presence with us and not his presents for us.
His presence with us and not his presents for us. His presence with us gives us life in all its fullness.
Can we get better at worship?
We can’t be thinking of God, alone, all the time. But we wouldn’t like the idea that our spouses or other loved ones, only loved us when we were together. It wouldn’t be love would it? Neither should we ever forget out relationship with God.
Worship involves thanking God for all the gifts he has given us and praising him for who he is and what he can do. We take many things for granted. It takes time to remember his gifts, who he really is, to develop the relationship.
May be you want to worship but you are having difficulty concentrating. If so the good news is, God understands. Your motive is to worship, and although you may be having difficulties in switching off your mind from other anxieties, God knows your heart.
May be you don’t feel as though God is as close as he could be. It is wonderful when worshipping God, to feel God is near, but God wants to know, you love him, when he doesn’t seem to be there, just as much as you love him when you feel him close.
Please look at your prayer book mark.
If you love God and want to worship him, and feel able to pray this prayer, then please join me in praying it.
Father, you love the world you created and daily sustain it.
You love all the people
you created and desire a relationship with each one,
- but we have all sinned.
Father I believe
Jesus Christ is Your Son,
my Saviour, who died for my sin, and whom you raised
from the dead.
Father I ask you to
forgive all my sin.
Thank you Jesus for giving your life to purchase eternal life for me and for all who love you.
Jesus I confess I love you,
my Lord, and Saviour.
Thank you for sending Your Holy Spirit to help me to Worship you, the worthy
Lamb of God.
Amen