The Shorter Catechism in Days Gone By asks
the ancient question of what and why, the
what and the why of man's existence.
The question is, what is the chief end
of man?
The answer is, man's chief end is to
worship God and enjoy Him forever.
Man's chief end is to worship God and
enjoy Him forever.
That is what life on this earth is
all about and the life to come.
Whatever else you think of life, whatever else
may be your purpose in life, whatever else
might be your self-designed goals, you were
created to worship God.
I want to talk about true worship as
we find it in the Bible today.
And I want to begin by looking at
John 4 and pick up in the account
at verse 20.
Here Jesus is talking to the woman at
the well and He is in this discussion.
She says, Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.
And you Jews...
She's a Samaritan.
She says, You Jews say that in Jerusalem
is the place where one ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the
hour is coming when you will neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know.
We know what we worship for salvation is
of the Jews, but the hour is coming
and now is when true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for the
Father is seeking such to worship Him.
Did you know God is looking for people
on the earth who want to worship Him?
And He said, God is spirit.
God is spirit.
Those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and in truth.
Can you imagine?
The hour is coming and now is.
And there He revealed the fact to her
that He was the Messiah, that all worship
would now take place through Him to the
Father.
But God is a spirit.
God is spirit.
Those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and truth.
We have come to an era in the
church where there is a lot of entertainment
and very little worship.
I don't know if you've noticed that.
I don't know if you know the difference.
But today, so many churches are designed to
be marketable to the felt needs of people
out there walking around the world.
Market your operation to the people.
Churches today are man-centered rather than God
-centered.
We've come to a time where it's all
about the human heart instead about the heart
of God.
It's a tragic time if you ask me.
And it is a time where people should
be called back to worship God.
I want to talk about the proper definition
of worship to begin with, then the priority
of worship as we see it in the
Bible, and finally a little bit about the
practice.
To begin with, we need a proper definition
today of worship.
There is a growing mindset among Christians today
that says worship is primarily for me.
And there's a lot that has contributed to
that.
I would say one great contributor has been
the Word of Faith movement.
The Word of Faith movement is all about
health, wealth, and prosperity.
Name it, claim it, and you can have
it.
And it panders to man's pride.
It panders to man's fleshly desires.
And as a result, all kinds of things
are promised that are really to the benefit
and advantage of the teachers of the Word
of Faith movement who are without question false
prophets and charlatans and rip-off artists in
the body of Christ.
There is something else that has contributed to
the current mindset that says worship is all
about me, and that is pragmatism is the
order of the day.
In churches, no longer are people asking, no
longer are pastors asking the question, is it
right and is it in the Word of
God?
They're asking the question, will it work for
me and will it make me feel good?
Rather than is it right and is it
in the Word of God, it is, will
it work for me, will it make me
feel good, and will this program make my
church bigger?
These are the questions that are being tossed
around today.
This is not the time of revival in
America.
This is the time of a departure from
the faith toward itching ears, as Paul wrote
to Timothy.
In the last days, many will depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing doctrines of
demons.
Having itching ears will heap to themselves false
prophets that want to tell them what they
want to hear and make them feel good
so they can come into church, get a
little positive pep talk, get entertained and go
out.
And that is a tragic thing because the
church is being driven and driven and driven
and driven to produce, to bring other people,
to make it grow, to buy property, to
build, build, build, build, build, and the individuals
are suffering.
People are going out into their daily life
after going to church with nothing to guide
them, nothing to feed them, nothing to help
them when they face temptation.
When somebody shoves cocaine under their nose at
school, when somebody offers you a crooked business
deal, when you have the opportunity to make
a lot of money, when you have these
temptations, when Satan tempts you to do all
kinds of things, you need to have iron
in your soul, you need to be strong
and healthy, and that only comes from the
Word of God.
To be able to worship God rightly requires
a healthy Christian life and heart, and the
pragmatic mindset of today is not ministering to
that, and it is not cultivating strong Christian
people who center their lives on Christ.
And it has left, in general, a widespread
biblical illiteracy.
A widespread biblical illiteracy.
I am shocked today to ask the average
Christian any kind of biblical question.
And they're at a loss.
They don't have any answers because they don't
know the Bible, because they're not taught the
Bible, and yet so many today are saying
the Bible is not important.
Why do we need the Bible in our
churches?
What we really need is some really good
musicians because that's what people like.
And we need sermonettes for Christianettes because that's
what we want to cultivate.
They don't put it in those terms, but
that's what is being cultivated.
We have greenhouses for carnality and shallowness, and
that is a tragic thing because Jesus said
God is Spirit and He must be worshiped
in Spirit and in truth.
The perverted approach to worship today says worship
is primarily for me.
I go to a church service so that
I can get something for me.
You know what the Bible says?
The Bible says worship is primarily for God.
Worship is primarily for God.
Worship.
The word in the Greek language that Jesus
uses here is the Greek word proskuneo.
Do you know what it means?
It means to kiss toward.
It means to kiss the hand.
It means to bow down and prostrate yourself.
It was used widely among Orientals, especially the
Persians.
And the word was used to describe the
act of falling on your knees and touching
the ground with your forehead as an expression
of profound reverence.
The Bible takes that word.
Jesus takes that word.
He exalts it to its highest dimension and
He describes what we are to do with
God, with our hearts and lives.
The English word worship that is used to
translate proskuneo comes from an old English term
worth-ship.
Worth-ship.
It denotes the worthiness of the individual receiving
the special honor which in our worship as
Christians is God.
See, I think we often have it backwards.
We have our whole approach to Christianity backwards.
We're always coming for what we can get.
Coming to God for what we can get
rather than coming to God for what we
can give to Him in worship.
And so we approach the Lord that way.
We approach church services that way.
We fail to realize that if we will
find first God and worship Him, we'll find
all the other things we want and desperately
need brought our way by the Lord in
the process.
He is first.
And the needs are met as a result.
Let me read to you the words of
William Temple, written so very long ago.
He said, Both for perplexity in your life
and for a dulled conscience, the remedy is
the same.
For worship is the submission of all our
nature to God.
Worship is the submission of all our nature
to God.
Listen to this.
It is the quickening of the conscience by
His holiness.
It is the nourishment of the mind by
His truth.
It is the opening of the heart to
His love.
It is the surrender of the will to
His purpose.
The surrender of your will to His purpose.
All of this is gathered up, he says,
in adoration, which is the most selfless emotion
of which our human nature is capable.
The most selfless emotion of which our human
nature is capable.
And therefore, worship is the chief remedy for
that self-centeredness, which is our original sin
and the source of all practical sin.
Yes, worship in spirit and truth is the
way to the solution of perplexity in our
lives and liberation from sin in our lives.
So you see, to William Temple, worship is
the response of all that man is to
all that God has revealed Himself to be.
That's worship.
We do not worship God for what we
can get out of it.
We worship God because He is worthy of
our worship.
And obviously, in the process, we get a
lot out of it.
But you see, essentially, worship is giving to
God.
We could put it this way.
It is the blessed act of blessing God.
The blessed act of blessing God.
We see it in the Old Testament.
In Exodus 30, verses 7 and 8, Aaron
the high priest...
Let me just read it to you.
Aaron the high priest shall burn incense every
morning in a twilight.
He shall burn incense, a perpetual incense before
the Lord throughout their generations.
So in the Old Testament, they would burn
the incense before the Lord.
It would rise as a sweet fragrance and
that is a picture for us of worship.
It was, in fact, part of their worship
to God.
In the New Testament, in John, there was
a meal they had together after Lazarus had
been risen from the dead.
Mary and Martha and Lazarus were very close
friends of Jesus Christ.
Few private friends that he had.
And he went to their house for a
dinner.
In John 12, verse 1, it says six
days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany.
Then in John 12, verse 3, Mary comes
in and it says she took a pound
of very costly oil of spikenard and anointed
the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet
with her hair and the house was filled
with the fragrance of the oil.
And so it just permeated the house as
she's there worshiping the Lord in humility and
offering the best that she had to give
and the fragrance fills the whole house.
That is the way worship is to be
among God's people, that we gather together and
we worship Him.
Whether it's in fellowship, whether it's in giving,
whether it's in studying the Word, our hearts
are open and just offered to God.
And the praise that flows from our lives
comes from the Holy Spirit's power.
It's offered up to God, sanctified through the
work of His Son and received then by
the Father.
It's something that we bring to God.
So when you come to church or you
go to your prayer closet, you should see
worship as a gift in your heart that
you are eager to give to God.
Worship is a gift from your heart to
God as your Father.
So, let me say to you very clearly
lest you miss it.
If you come to church primarily to see
what you can get primarily, to see what
you can get, if you just come for
the blessing, a zap, a touch, warm fuzzies,
then you don't truly worship God.
Not truly.
It doesn't mean that you don't.
But in the truest sense.
A.W. Tozer once said, whoever seeks God
as a means toward desired ends will not
find God.
God will not be used.
Tozer.
You see, there was a reason Tozer was
as deep as he was.
The writings in his books still speak to
so many today.
The bottom line is the church needs to
worship God.
When we worship God, we make Him the
center of everything and then we find God.
And in finding God, we find the solution
to our problems.
I love what the psalmist wrote.
Turn in your Bible.
Hold your place here and turn to Psalm
45, verse 1.
Psalm 45, verse 1.
The psalmist says, My heart is overflowing with
a good theme.
My heart is overflowing with a good theme.
In other words, as he sat before the
Lord and meditated on the Lord, his heart
was warmed.
Do you know the literal Hebrew there for
the word overflowing?
In the literal Hebrew, it is bubbling up
and boiling over.
Bubbling up and boiling over.
Here is the psalmist sitting before the Lord.
He's just focusing on God, meditating on God,
and his heart gets warmer and warmer until
he says, Lord, my heart is boiling over
for You.
That is worship.
That is a heart full of God.
That is a heart offered to God.
When you offer your heart to God, you
can't out-give God.
He will always give you back more than
you can contain.
Worship should be a gift in your heart
that you can't wait to give to the
Lord and really it becomes, ultimately, your whole
heart as a gift to God.
Proper definition.
Let's go to the priority of God-centered
worship.
When you look at the Christian life and
the plan of God, you will discover worship
is the ultimate purpose of redemption.
Man in his lost state, when he fell
in the garden, turned away from pure worship
of God so that what has happened today
is so much preaching of the gospel has
to do with felt need that so many
have the idea today that you come to
Christ because you're lonely.
And He's going to fix your loneliness.
You come to Christ because you've been hurt
and He's going to heal you.
You come to Christ because you're not doing
well financially and you need God to become
your great financier and to make you prosper
and make you wealthy.
You come to God because you need a
physical healing.
The gospel is so often preached like that.
Are you lonely?
You won't be lonely anymore.
Do you need money?
Christ will give you money.
Whatever, whatever, whatever.
How about this?
All have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God.
If you don't repent of your sins, you
will be exiled from God forever.
Men love darkness rather than light.
And if that's what you love throughout this
life, that's what you'll get forever.
How about this?
God so loved the world, He gave His
only begotten Son that whoever would believe on
Him would have everlasting life.
So many of the basics of the true
gospel are being left out today, substituted with
something else that's almost like it, but almost
isn't good enough.
King Agrippa said to Paul the Apostle, You
do almost persuade me to be a Christian.
I will hear you on another day.
And Paul went away and we have no
record of Agrippa ever calling him back.
He remained almost a Christian and almost isn't
good enough.
There's so much almost gospel.
So much almost Christianity today.
And a lot of almost worship.
But you know what?
I don't know about you, but almost isn't
good enough for me.
I want the real thing.
I want all of God.
I don't want almost a walk with God.
Almost a life of worship with God.
I want true worship before my Lord.
Worship is the ultimate purpose of redemption.
And along the way, if you're lonely, you'll
find a friend who will never leave you
or forsake you.
Yes.
If you have need, you'll find He meets
your needs.
You were created to worship God.
Do you worship God?
If you call yourself a Christian, do you
worship God?
In Luke 19.10, Jesus said, The Son
of Man has come to seek and to
rescue or to save that which was lost.
Men who lost their way in worshiping God.
To put it another way, in John 4
.23, He said, The hour is coming and
now is when true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
is seeking such for what?
To worship Him.
He's come to seek and to save that
which is lost.
To seek and save them for what?
The Father is seeking such to worship Him.
Did you know God is seeking you to
come and worship Him?
That is why He brought you to salvation.
It is the only thing in the Bible
you may be interested to know that we
are told that He seeks from you.
In Revelation, at the end of the Bible,
we read in chapter 14, verse 6.
Why don't you turn there in your Bible
right now.
Revelation 14.6. It's the ultimate purpose of
redemption.
You find it all the way through.
And even the angel here.
Revelation 14.6. I saw another angel flying
in the midst of heaven having the everlasting
gospel to preach to those who dwell on
the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and
people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God
and give glory to Him.
Isn't that interesting?
Here's an angel who's flawless, an angel who's
perfect, an angel who gets his opportunity to
preach the gospel.
What does he say?
Fear God and give glory to Him.
The angel's not shouting from heaven, Are you
lonely?
Do you have problems in your relationships down
there?
Have you been having anxiety attacks?
You need Jesus.
He'll lower your anxiety level.
Now the angel is flying through heaven.
Fear God and give Him glory.
The essence of worship.
Turn from your sins.
Follow Christ.
Worship God.
That's the gospel.
That is the gospel according to Jesus Christ.
Turn from your sins and follow Me.
It never changes.
To what end?
Revelation 14.7. Saying with a loud voice,
Fear God, give Him glory, for the hour
of judgment has come, and worship Him who
made heaven and earth, the seas and the
springs of water.
In the Bible, worship is the ultimate purpose
of redemption.
Further, worship is the ultimate focus of the
whole Bible.
The whole Bible.
In the very beginning, Adam and Eve worshipped
God.
When they sinned and worshipped another, they fell
out of fellowship with God.
Salvation was immediately needed.
Cain killed Abel over the matter of what?
Worship.
When the patriarchs worshipped God obediently, they were
blessed.
And when they didn't, they were chastised by
God.
Israel was doomed in the desert because of
a failure to properly worship God as God
and give Him the glory.
Moses never entered the promised land because he
refused to worship God in obedience at the
rock in front of the people.
When God gave the law from Mount Sinai,
there was, first of all, a call to
worship.
Exodus 20, verse 3, Worship.
Jesus summed it all up in Matthew 22
-37.
Jesus said to him, You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
That's worship.
Do you know that in Exodus, 25 chapters
are devoted to the construction of the temple
where they were to worship God?
The tabernacle.
25 chapters devoted to the construction.
Do you know that 50 chapters in the
Bible report instructions on how to build it?
25 in Exodus devoted to building it.
50 chapters in the Bible devoted to instructions
about building it.
13 chapters in Exodus.
18 in Leviticus.
13 in Numbers.
2 in Deuteronomy.
4 in Hebrews.
All about the instructions to build the place
of worship.
Do you know that when they built the
tabernacle after Moses received the instructions from God,
God told the leaders where they were to
encamp their tribes.
Some to the north, some to the south,
east and west.
And the configuration as you look at it,
physically, you have the tabernacle here, tribes to
the north, south, east, west.
It forms literally a cross as they're encamped
around the tabernacle.
And it was all designed that there above
the tabernacle God's presence was manifested.
The cloud of glory by day and the
pillar of fire by night.
So, as you came out of your tent
in the morning, open the tent door, stretch,
look out, check out the day.
The first thing you would see would be
the glory of God, the cloud of glory.
If you came out in the evening, the
first thing you'd see as you looked out
is the tabernacle.
That's the way God had set up.
And you would see the pillar of fire.
The first thing that greeted your life as
you began your day was always the glory
of God and the place of worship.
Worship was the first thing that came to
the mind of the Jew in the encampment
of Israel around the tabernacle.
God designed it that way.
And that's the way it is to be.
That is the way it is to be.
Their lives literally revolved around the worship that
went on at the tabernacle.
In following worship as the ultimate priority of
the Bible, you find out that when people
violated principles of worship, it was serious.
Do you remember when Moses was on the
mountaintop getting the Ten Commandments?
What were the people doing down below?
Worshiping a golden what?
You all know it.
Consequences were very serious.
In Leviticus 10, it was the ordination day
for Nadab and Abihu.
They brought strange fire before the Lord.
And the Bible says fire came out from
the Lord and consumed them.
Evidently, if you read on, they were drunk
when they came to make their offering.
They came with worship that was unacceptable.
They were slain.
Saul went in to act as priest and
brought the offering and the sacrifice in 1
Samuel 13, and he lost his kingdom.
Uzzah was riding along on a newly made
cart when they were bringing the Ark of
the Covenant back from the Philistines.
They hit a bump in the road.
Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark.
And he died.
David was in front of the Ark dancing
and singing and praising.
Oh, about 100,000 people were around and
they were all playing music and singing and
worshiping.
And Uzzah, as they hit a bump in
the road, in the middle of all this
praise, he just touches the Ark to stabilize
it and he dies.
Immediately, it's silent.
David is, oh my gosh, what happened?
And he goes home and the Bible says
for about six months he sought the Lord
and he poured over the Scriptures and you
know what he discovered?
Uzzah was a Kohathite.
Kohathites were the only ones allowed to carry
the Ark of the Covenant.
They were to run poles through rings on
the side of the Ark.
Run poles through the rings and carry the
Ark on poles.
They were never ever to touch it.
They were not carrying God rightly in their
worship before the people.
And when he reached out and touched the
Ark, that was the main thing he was
forbidden to do ever.
Why did he do it?
Because they had drifted away from the Word
of God.
They had drifted away from the revealed person
of God in Scripture and thus they were
no longer carrying God rightly in their hearts.
And the Ark on a cart with wheels
is a picture of the nation not carrying
God properly in their hearts.
As a result, there was death.
And so they got it right after David
went back to the Scriptures and poured over
it.
But you see, worship is the great priority
of the Bible.
And when you violate the principles of worship,
it's very serious and it's the same today
as we come to the time of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
He comes to earth.
He says He came to seek the lost
and to save them.
And here He is with the lost woman
at the well with great need and empty
life.
And He says the Father is seeking those
that want to worship Him in spirit and
in truth.
The Apostle Paul in the book of Romans
taught for eleven chapters the grace of God
in a way that has never been revealed
anywhere else.
Eleven chapters.
He doesn't ask you to do one thing
in the book of Romans.
And after eleven chapters, can you turn in
your Bible to Romans 12.1?
After eleven chapters, you come to chapter 12.
And in chapter 12, Romans, you have the
first time He asks you to do anything.
Think of that.
Teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching.
He never asks you really to do anything
until chapter 12.
He says here, I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God.
He's given them eleven chapters of the mercies
of God.
Now that I've laid it out before you,
now that it is clear, eleven chapters of
grace, here's what I ask you to do.
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable to God, which is the most
reasonable thing you can do in light of
everything I've taught you.
It is your reasonable service.
The NIV renders it.
It is your spiritual worship.
Okay.
Spiritual worship is the first thing He goes
to when you now understand the grace of
God.
You're ready to worship Him.
He's given you eleven chapters of doctrine before
He ever asked you to do anything.
Always the Word before anything you do so
you understand what to do.
Then what happens when you give your life
to God as a living sacrifice in true
spiritual worship?
What happens?
He says, And be not conformed to this
world, but rather be transformed by what?
The renewing of your mind.
To what end?
That you may be able to prove by
experience what is that good and acceptable and...
What kind of will of God?
Perfect will of God.
You want to know the will of God
in your life?
Worship Him truly.
Offer your heart.
Offer your life as a living sacrifice and
what you will find, verse 2, Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind that you
may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
God's will for your life is perfect.
Anything less is not God's will.
To talk of God's will in any other
terms less than perfect is false.
It's not God's will.
People bandy about the term today permissive will
of God.
There were Corinthians in the New Testament that
Paul wrote to.
And he said, I write unto you, I
acknowledge you're born again.
I write unto you, I acknowledge you have
fruit.
And I also want to tell you to
begin with and then we're going to have
16 chapters of correction.
First of all, I want to tell you
you're carnal.
We'll start there and we'll go up.
Why?
Because you live at the bottom of the
Christian life.
You're carnal.
We're going to make you spiritual.
It's going to take 16 chapters and I'll
write you again after that.
Second Corinthians.
Permissive will of God, what is that?
That is God being gracious to you to
save you, to take you to heaven.
But you will never find the term in
the Bible permissive will of God.
But you will find the perfect will of
God because God is perfect and He has
a will and a plan for you and
His plan is perfect.
Anything less than that is not His plan.
God has a perfect will for your life
and that alone is the will of God
for your life.
Does that make sense to you?
That's what the Bible says.
And you find it as you worship God.
You find it as you worship God.
We are to worship Him in truth.
Jesus says you worship Him in truth.
The priority of the worship of God is
all over the Bible.
Let's go to the practice finally.
Basic elements of Christian worship.
We worship Him in truth.
That is why, brethren, we study here in
this church the Word of God every time
we come together.
I cannot apply what I do not know.
I cannot know anything about God except I
go to the place He's revealed Himself, which
is in the Bible.
In the Bible, God has revealed Himself from
Genesis to Revelation.
I was created to worship God.
I cannot worship God if I don't know
anything about Him.
The more I know about Him, the more
my heart is drawn out to worship Him.
So, we worship God through the study of
His Word.
And there we know the truth about Him
and then our hearts are drawn out toward
Him to worship Him.
I like what Van Savenor said.
He said, Our Lord approved neither of idol
worship nor idol worship, but ideal worship in
spirit and in truth.
Then he said, Too many members today sit
smugly in church on Sunday, some closing the
eyes, others eyeing the clothes, and with a
dozen other things on their minds, except worshiping
God."
Worship is to be in spirit and to
be in truth from the very center of
our being toward God.
The basic elements of Christian worship lead to
the basic elements of corporate worship in church.
I would say the most basic element is
that you order your life around God and
the main church service at your church.
You order your life around God and the
main church service.
In our church right now, we have Sunday
morning and Wednesday.
That is when we worship the Lord.
And just as the tabernacle of old, their
lives were ordered around the tabernacle, it is
my conviction from the Bible that we are
to order our lives around our church service.
And I tell that to people all the
time.
And I find Christians today wondering why they're
not doing so well and they don't order
their life around the church service that they
go to.
If God has called you to a local
church and you understand that He's called you
there and that's His will for your life,
you should be there.
When the doors are open, you should be
there.
Now, if you were to go to a
ball game on Sunday, you would make preparation
the day before, wouldn't you?
Would you?
Of course you would.
And yet, when we come to church, how
often do we make any preparation at all
the night before?
To me, the most practical thing about gathering
together to worship God is that we are
preparing our hearts to worship Him.
I would encourage you on Saturday night to
order your life around God and your church
service the next morning.
To prepare your heart to meet with God.
I rarely meet a Christian who prepares their
heart on Saturday night to meet with God
on Sunday morning.
Rarely.
And, you know, I've been doing this for
a long time.
I see everybody as they come into church.
Some are rarararararing to go.
Their hearts are prepared.
They're right with the Lord.
Others come straggling in.
You would not show up for a ball
game like that.
You'd be decked out, all prepared, food packed,
da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
And everything in order.
The right t-shirt, right ball cap.
Check it out, you know.
With all your cheers down, and all the
stats down, and everything else, and yadda-yadda
-yadda.
And people come into church.
What's up, man?
And then, you know, the service starts.
Oh, where am I?
Excuse me.
I didn't realize they were worshiping.
Some people are out cold before the study
ever starts.
You'd be amazed at the things you see
up here.
One person is blessed and worshiping God and
filled, and the person next to him is
just...
Oh, man.
I was up late last night.
Oh, I see.
You were preparing to do anything other than
worship God.
You see, we should prepare our hearts.
Do not underestimate how much God can bless
you when you prepare your heart to meet
with Him before you go to your church
service.
Now, that's just taking it for granted that
the whole church service you're going to is
centered on Jesus Christ as Lord, as the
center of our lives, and the Word of
God is there as the center of the
service to introduce you further to Him.
It just takes that for granted as basic.
Make your conscious decision to be in church.
Order your life around it.
Do not ever move to another place without
going to the place first and finding out
if you can be taught the Word of
God and fed and have fellowship in Christ
-centered worship when you get there.
What good does it do you to take
another job, go to another place, if when
you get there you're not going to be
fed spiritually?
You cannot worship God with those that worship
Him in spirit and in truth.
And you become anemic spiritually.
Your life dries up.
You become unhappy and far from God, but
you've got some bucks.
Well, we just want the blue sky and
the mountains and the ocean.
What about Jesus?
People order their lives around everything except their
relationship with God and their worship of God
and wonder why their lives are a mess.
Why they don't know the Lord very well.
And that is why there's so little bubbly,
boiling hearts and people today for the Lord.
William Kalpert put it so good.
He said, The dearest idol I have known
would e'er that idol be, help me
to tear it from Thy throne and worship
only Thee.
Make no mistake about it.
Whatever your master passion is in your life
is what you are worshiping.
The thing that you think about the most
is what you are worshiping.
I pray that it's God, your Savior Jesus
Christ, and it's your relationship with Him, and
that you are a true worshiper and that
you worship Him in truth honestly, intellectually, spiritually
because you've been educated from the Word of
God on who He is and in spirit
from your heart.
Augustine, the early church father, sums it all
up when he says, You have formed us
for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are
restless until we find our rest in Thee.
Our hearts are restless, O God, until we
find our rest in Thee.
And it comes to us, brethren, when we
come to Him and truly worship Him in
spirit and in truth in all aspects of
our lives.
All aspects of our lives.
Not just for an hour in a church
service, but every hour of every day.
He's the center.
We live in the spirit of prayer and
worship as God's people.
A Christian, whatever else he or she may
be, is to be first and foremost a
worshiper of God in Jesus Christ.
And that is where the abundant life is.
To the same woman Jesus was talking to
at the well, He also gave the teaching
of the rivers of living water.
The rivers of living water are found flowing
as torrents of life in the heart of
a true worshiper of Jesus Christ.
And nowhere else.
And that is what God has for you.
Open your heart today.
Pray with me now that God will cultivate
in our hearts true worship.
Father, thank You today, Lord, that we have
been drawn by You all the way up
to Jesus Christ.
Thank You, Lord, that You have filled us
with Your Holy Spirit.
Thank You, Holy Spirit, that You are ever
and always active in our hearts to cultivate
true worship, which is really in spirit and
in truth, according to the Word and our
God revealed there.
Now, Lord, free us from all shallow preconceived
ideas of what the Christian life is about.
And open up before us, Lord, that great
and glorious life with You where the sacrifice
of the heart is brought to You and
the great fire falls from heaven.
And there is the abundance that You ordained
for us to enjoy with You as Your
children.
O God, may we worship You and truly
enjoy You forever.
And we ask these things in the name
of Jesus, expecting to be blessed as our
lives and our hearts are warmed with the
love of God.
For we pray these things in Jesus' name,
Amen.