A Big God is Worthy of Big Worship

Psalm 34:1-3

*Begin class by asking several volunteers to describe what they think angels look like*

Lets look at what the Bible says a Cherub looks like from Ezekiel 1.

Have a humanlike body (Ezekiel 1:5)

Have feet like calves (Ezekiel 1:7)

Have human like hands (Ezekiel 1:8)

Have 4 wings (Ezekiel 1:6,8)

Have 4 faces (Ezekiel 1:6,8)

One like a man (Ezekiel 1:10)

One like a lion

One like an ox

One like an eagle

Have an appearance like fire from which lightning shoots forth (Ezekiel 1:13-14)

Does this description come remotely close to what any of you thought angels looked like?

When we dont know what something actually looks like, or is like, we try to fill in the blanks with what we imagine might be true, what we want to be true, or what others have told us is true.

This exercise showed us how drastically different our view on angels were compared to how they actually are. Lets consider how drastically different our view of God might be compared to how Scripture actually describes Him.

None of us have seen God face-to-face. However, the Bible tells us that the angels see Him face-to-face every day and it causes them to worship Him (Revelation 5:11–14). And so it stands to reason, that if we can see God for Who He really is, then it will cause us to respond with true worship!

What is worship? - it is any action or attitude that expresses praise, love, and appreciation for God. It means to ascribe worth to something. You are praising Him because He is worthy of it

In this lesson we are talking about how to have truer worship. When we enlarge our view of God, it will help us to worship Him more and in a way that is worthy of Him.

The Bible gives us an example of someone who had an elevated picture of God, and as a result caused him to truly worship God. King David was a great king of Israel, but he may have been an even better songwriter as he is the author of the vast majority of the Psalms. And the subject of most of his songs had to do with the worship of God, of which Psalm 34 is a great example.

Psalm 34:1–3 KJV 1900

1 I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3 O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt his name together.

Verse 1 - I will bless the Lord at all times - David continually and at all times worshipped the Lord

Verse 2 - it was typical of kings to boast about things they had accomplished, but it was not so with David. He lifted up the Lord and boasted about Him!

Verse 3 - David then calls us to join him in magnifying the Lord and exalting His name. Why? because David had the appropriate view of God

If we want to express appropriate worship to God, we must first have an accurate view of Who He is. When we see God for Who He is then, can our worship be truer than it already is because Truer vision leads to truer worship

I. Seeing God For Who He Really Is

Now, you may already have an idea in your mind of what you think God is like. Maybe some of the things you already believe to be true about God really are; maybe they are not. We all had our own idea of what an angel looks like, didn’t we? Since none of us have ever seen God, let’s take a look at some of the things we can know are true about God according to the Bible.

A. God is Enormous

Isaiah 40:12 KJV 1900

12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, And meted out heaven with the span, And comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, And weighed the mountains in scales, And the hills in a balance?

What is the largest thing you can think of?

According to this verse, God is so big and immense that He can fit all the water on earth in the palm of His hand, and can fit all the galaxies in the span of His hand!

B. God is the Creator of all Things

John 1:1–3 KJV 1900

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Revelation 4:11 KJV 1900

11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

God literally created all things!

C. God is All-Powerful

Matthew 19:26 KJV 1900

26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

There are many things that are impossible for man to do, but there is nothing impossible for God.

There is nothing in our lives that is impossible for God, no matter how impossible it may seem to us

D. God is Always With Us

Deuteronomy 31:6 KJV 1900

6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

God is with us every moment of every day! You cant be around your favorite people at every single moment of life, but God can be around you every single moment. He never slumbers nor sleeps!

Even if noone else is around, God is there

E. God is Always Truthful

Numbers 23:19 KJV 1900

19 God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

God never lies! It can be hard to trust people sometimes because they are not always truthful, but we do not have this problem with God. He is trustworthy because He cannot lie!

F. God is Always Loving

Romans 5:7–8 KJV 1900

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God is unbelievably loving! He loves us who are unlovable, ones who have given Him nothing of value to love

Ephesians 2:5 “5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”

We cannot worship God as we ought to until we first see Him for Who He truly is

II. Truer Vision Leads to Truer Worship

In Daniel 3, we see an example of this. In this passage, Nebuchadnezzar’s perception of God is challenged by the reality of Who God is.

At the center of this event is a king named Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar ruled over the people of Israel, but he was actually the King of Babylon, and he worshiped different gods than the God of Israel. He did not worship the one true God. But there were three men from Israel who worked for Nebuchadnezzar named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who only worshiped the God of Israel - the one true God.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar built a golden statue and made a decree that any time the subjects of his kingdom heard music being played, they had to bow down and worship the gold statue that he had made, or else they would be thrown into a fiery furnace.

But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego feared God more than they feared the king. They knew that God had commanded that they should not bow down nor worship any other gods besides the one, true God (Exodus 20:3-5). So, when they heard music playing, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not bow down and worship the golden statue, despite the king’s command.

This infuriated Nebuchadnezzar, and so he had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace. Of course, he thought that would kill them. But to Nebuchadnezzar’s amazement, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were completely unharmed by the flames!

Before Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace, he believed that even he was more powerful than the God of Israel (Daniel 3:15b). But then, Nebuchadnezzar saw what the real God was able to do; God miraculously saved the three men from certain death. Afterward, as you might imagine, Nebuchadnezzar had a very different perspective of the God of Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar actually began to worship the one, true God. Not only that, but he commanded all the people of his kingdom to also worship the God of the Israelites, declaring that “there is no other God who can deliver like this” (Daniel 3:29).

Nebuchadnezzar got a true vision of Who God is and when that happened, he worshiped the one, true God. Like Nebuchadnezzar, when we see God for Who He truly is, our natural response will be to worship Him because truer vision leads to truer worship.

Isaiah 6:1-5.

III. Ways We Can Know Who God Really Is

So in order for us to worship God as we ought to, we need to know Who God really is. But how do we discover for ourselves Who God really is?

A. By Reading God’s Word

Psalm 119:130 KJV 1900

130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; It giveth understanding unto the simple.

God gave us written Word so we may know Who He truly is. His Word is full of truths about Who He is and what God truly cares about

The Bible gives us light - we need light to be able to see. We need light in order to guide us in this dark world. God’s Word is light

the Bible gives us understanding - theres a lot of confusion out in the world, but the Bible helps us to make sense of it all.

If we want to know Who God is, we have to spend time in His Word. The Bible is God’s autobiography on Himself

B. By Asking God to Reveal More of Himself to Us

Psalm 119:18 KJV 1900

18 Open thou mine eyes, That I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Apart from God opening our spiritual eyes to understand and giving us faith to believe what He says istrue, our view of God won’t change – no matter how many facts we learn about God.

The psalmist actually gave us a short prayer that we would be wise to pray when we are reading the Bible.

If we ask God to show us the truth about Who He really is, and we are faithful to study the Word of God, we can trust that He will reveal more of Himself to us. God desires that we will grow in our knowledge of Him and worship Him for Who He truly is.

Listen, truer vision leads to truer worship; as our view of God grows larger, so will our worship of Him. A big God is worthy of big worship; so, let’s get a bigger picture of Who He is and respond with bigger worship.

Read Psalm 34:1-3

Psalm 34:1–3 KJV 1900

1 I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3 O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt his name together.

Conclusion

Take some time right now to thank God for Who He is. Ask God to show you more of Who He is this week as you study His Word. Ask God to rid you of any false ideas you may have about Him or that the Devil may have convinced you of.

Then sometime this week, maybe even as you go home, take some time to worship the Lord