Person of Worship in Culture of Counterfeits 010

Becoming A Person of Worship in a Culture of Counterfeits

Restoring the Savor of Our Salt Series                Message # 10

We want to be looking at a couple of passages today. 1 Samuel 5 and then Revelation 4. We’re working on a series of message around the general theme of restoring the savor of our salt. We’re trying to think about whether we are being molded by the culture around us, or are we being molded by the Word of God. And if I really know Jesus Christ and if I am really being impacted by the Word of Christ, it should make a different person out of me.

We want to look today specifically at the issue of being a person of worship in a culture of counterfeits. We want to focus on the question of how do I come to understand God better and understand more what He is like? And therefore, when I understand what He is like, to be a better worshipper.

I’d like to begin reading in 1 Samuel 5:1-12, and then we’ll skip all the way over to Revelation and read chapter 4. These are two powerful, contrasting passages about the matter of worshipping a false god as opposed to worshipping the God of the universe.

1 Samuel 5 is the story of the Philistines capturing the Ark of God in probably the worst spiritual and military move they ever made in some ways, and yet in some ways, it was the best move they ever made. And they brought this Ark of God to their town.

“And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. 2  When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon [Dagon, by the way, was one of their idols, a little carved god]. 3  And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. 5  Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. 6 ¶  But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods [that is a word referring to tumors], even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. 7  And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god. 8  They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. 9  And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. 10  Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. 11  So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. 12  And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.”

That’s a little insight into God’s relationship to false gods and God’s relationship to idols. Then to Revelation chapter 4, verses 1-11, please, as we think about what it is like to worship the true and living God, and how does He differ from a little idol like Dagon.

Revelation 4, starting in verse 1. The apostle John gets a little view into Heaven, into eternity and what it is like there.

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. 2  And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. 3  And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 4  And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 5  And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. [These beings described are generally regarded as angelic beings, who spend full time worshipping around the Throne of God.] 7  And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. 8 ¶  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 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.”

All people are worshippers by nature. Without even thinking about it, without even working on it, every person decides something that they believe is of ultimate good, of the greatest power, of the greatest whatever. And when they figure out what they think is the ultimate good for them, they give ultimate allegiance to it. We are worshippers by nature, we don’t even have to work on it. We don’t even think about it.

Probably the most godless people you could think about are natural worshippers. Timothy O’leary was a man who decided that drugs and the experience they gave him were of the ultimate value, and he became a worshipper of those things. Gloria Steinem is a woman who believes that feminism and the women’s movement is of ultimate value, and she gives her ultimate allegiance to it. Donald Trump is a person who is a worshipper of money, and business achievement, and financial victory. He has said in his mind, this is of ultimate worth, and I need to give ultimate allegiance to these things. Adolf Hitler was a worshipper of white supremacy. There are many Catholics who have become worshippers of Mary. There is a huge move in the Catholic Church to make Mary a co-redemptrix, meaning, she along with Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation. There are many, many people who are believing that Mary is of ultimate value and giving her ultimate allegiance in their lives.

Many cultists today who have picked out some god, small g, some god that they created or that was created by their founder, and decided, this god is of ultimate value. I will give that ultimate allegiance.

We have probably all met people who are worshippers of control. They see the greatest value in life is to be in control. They decide that control is of ultimate value and that gets their worship.

Every one of these people is giving ultimate allegiance to something. They believe that their god, small g, deserves their ultimate loyalty. The sad part about it is that there many people who claim to be Christians who give God the top billing in their publicity and outward public image, but who really give something else top affection in their hearts. Who love someone or something far more than they love God. Even though God may have top billing in their publicity—they are saying the right things and professing to believe the right things—but at the core of themselves they love something more than God.

I’d like us to think about this question of how do I become a person of genuine worship in a culture that is filled with counterfeits? How do I become a person who makes genuine connection with God, who really understands the nature of God, who escapes the incredible number of counterfeits in this culture that I could possibly worship?

Let’s take a look at the passage in 1 Samuel chapter 5:1-12. Worship Issue A. Counterfeit gods can never deliver anything to us.

We read this story about Dagon. We read how the Philistines captured the Ark of God. They brought the Ark into the temple of Dagon and they set it down next to their little carved god named Dagon. Dagon was the god of grain. The Ashdodites believed that Dagon could produce more grain. And in their system he was also the father of their main god, this god named Baal. Dagon was a very important god in their system, and they thought that he could produce more grain for them. They kept him in a little city named Ashdod. It is 25 miles south of modern-day Tel-Aviv, right on the coast of Israel. They had a little temple for him. They were worshippers of him. The worshippers of Dagon had bought into an incredible lie. They had bought into a huge lie, hook, line, and sinker.

Maybe you have gotten one of those letters that told you that if you would write a certain kind of letter and mail it to a huge number of people, they will send you back a certain amount of money and they will mail it out to their friends, and the more friends and relatives you mail this to, the more money you will get back. One man spent over $500 on postage and copying, and put together this huge mailing. He mailed everything out and sat back to wait for his money to roll in. You know the rest of the story. He never got a dime back! He bought into a big lie.

The worshippers of Dagon in Ashdod had bought into an incredible lie, and the lie was, Dagon is the true god, Dagon can help you. They believed, first of all, that Dagon controlled the amount of grain that they got, and that the amount of grain they got was of ultimate importance. There is nothing more important in life than how much yield you get on your grain.

They further believed that this carving could fix their grain yield and they further believed that he was influenceable—that they could somehow make him do something different than what he had planned to do.

They bought into a huge lie. The fact is, how much grain you get is not the most important thing in life. That’s the first part of the lie. The second part of the lie is, that this little carving has nothing to do with the control of grain. The third part of the lie is that this little stone god could be influenced and prayed to and  caused to change his mind.

The reality of this is that this little stone god couldn’t even stand up in the presence of the Ark of God. Not only could he not fix your grain yield; he couldn’t even stand up when they brought the Ark of God to set in his temple and next to him.

When you get up in the morning and go into your temple and find out your god has fallen over, it’s time to change gods! Time to look into a new god.

Probably the greatest service that Dagon ever did for the Philistines was fall down and break his head and arms off. It was a huge service to them, because they understood, this god can’t help us. Or at least, they should have.

One of the greatest services that a false god can do for anyone is to fail them. And the quicker the better! To fail them and help them understand that they have bought into a huge lie, that Dagon is a sorry excuse for a god, and that if your god cannot even stand up, it’s time to change gods.

Obviously the application for us is to say, am I worshipping something that is just as sad an excuse for a god as Dagon himself was? Am I worshipping something other than the One True and Living God of eternity? If I am, the best thing that god could do for me is fail me quickly, so that I understand, I need to turn to the God of eternity.

I’d like to ask you to look with me in Revelation chapter 4 for a few minutes, as we think about worshipping the God of eternity, and we look at the terrific contrast between the God of eternity and this little stone god who represents all the false gods.

The key issue here is that if I am a person who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, I will spend eternity involved in three things: worship, fellowship, and service. I will spend eternity worshipping God, fellowship with other believers, and serving God and other believers. Those three things will still remain.

I need to be better and better at those things, as I prepare myself for eternity, and I want to ask you to think today about being a better worshipper as we prepare ourselves for eternity with God.

Second worship issue, worship issue B. Every believer must make a concerted, personal effort to understand the nature of the God of the Bible. It is my responsibility to know what He is like, because when I know what God is like, I become a much better worshipper of Him.

One of the reasons that we are poor worshippers is because we don’t understand the nature of God. We don’t have insight into His greatness. We’ve never been confronted by His remarkable glory. The better we understand God, the better worshippers we are.

One of the reasons we are bad worshippers in many cases is because we have got our beliefs about God from popular culture. We have listened to our friends talk about God and decided that’s what He is really like. Or perhaps we have listened to some cult member teach about God and decided that’s what He’s really like. Perhaps we have said to ourselves, here is what I would like God to be like. Here is who I wish God was. It would really help me if God were this way, and so we create God in our own image rather than Him creating us in His image.

I want to look at nine issues, and we will do so quickly, in Revelation chapter 4, to have a better understanding of what God is really like. As I go through these with you and review them very quickly, I want you to say to yourself, did I know this about God? And is it impacting the way I react to Him?

First issue to understand about God, number one, verse 2—God is the ruler of all that is. Verse 2 says, “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.” God sitting on the throne is a picture of His right to rule over everyone and everything. There are a lot of people in rebellion to that today. Satan is in full blown rebellion to that today. Millions of people in the world are in full blown rebellion to that. Most governments are in full rebellion to the fact that God has the right to rule. Many, many believers are in great rebellion to God’s sovereignty in their own lives. And I think the key question to ask ourselves is, Is God ruling my life? Or am I living in my own way and then asking God to baptize it after the fact? Am I just pressing forward with what I really want to do and then saying, Lord, bless this.

The first issue is the question, does God really rule in my life, or am I in rebellion to that?

Second thing to know about God, verse 3, is that God is incredibly, indescribably beautiful. “And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.”

These colors of jasper and sardis were used to describe God, Jasper is a clear crystal appearance. And sardis is blood red. And then there was a rainbow around Him that was a light green. Now, I’m not an interior decorator or color expert by any means. I have no idea what those colors actually looked like, but those were the colors that John saw when he experienced God on His throne.

I think part of what he was trying to say was, God is a remarkably beautiful Being. Have you ever seen a situation where there has been rain, and there comes the sun breaking through the clouds and there is a double rainbow? We saw that once while we were visiting my sister in Virginia. Beautiful colors, one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Just a teeny, tiny fraction of the picture of the beauty of God!

God who created that rainbow is infinitely more gorgeous than that. God is a beautiful Being, and one of the ways that I become a better worshipper is by understanding that He is beautiful and that He creates things of beauty.

One of the incredible things is that the most beautiful angel He created, Lucifer, who eventually fell and became Satan, he was described as a gorgeous being. God’s world, even though impacted by the fall, has beautiful aspects to it. God is deeply committed to beauty in all that He does.

Two applications to think about. Number one, when I come to understand even a fraction of God’s beauty, I am a much better worshipper of Him. When you see something beautiful in nature, you go to a National Park or see something spectacularly beautiful, you talk that up. You’re saying, it was dazzling, it was breathtaking, it was beautiful! And when I understand the beauty of God, I become a better worshipper.

The second application is, when I create things of beauty—when I do a quilt or a carving or a poem or a piece of woodwork—when I make something beautiful, I am an imitator of God. I am committed to something that God is also committed to. God is committed to beauty.

A third thing to understand about God, verse 4, God is our Redeemer. It says there, “And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.”

The key issue I want to focus on there is that they were wearing white garments, which simply means they have experienced redemption. They had a right standing before God. They were clean. Even though they had a terrific, remarkable sin problem, just like we do, they were fully forgiven, their sin was completely removed, the had a perfect standing before God because of the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ which was theirs by faith.

I saw a very interesting story about a little boy who carved a wooden boat. When he got down with his boat, he just realized it was beautiful. It was much better than he had ever done, it was better than he was capable of doing. He loved this little boat. He put a sail on it, took it to the local park, put it in the little lake, and the wind caught that little sail and took it away from him to the other side. He went around as fast as he could, but when he got there someone had taken his boat. It was gone. He was heartbroken to lose this beautiful thing he had created. He was downcast for two weeks. One day he was walking down the street and went by a toy store in this town and saw his boat for sale in the toy store. He went in and said to the toy store manager, this is my boat. I carved this. I want it back. The man said, I’m sorry, I bought this from someone and it’s for sale if you want to buy it. The boy insisted and the man insisted. He would not give him the boat. So this boy went home and robbed his piggy bank and came back to the store and bought his own boat. As he was walking away he said to this little boat, “Now you are twice mine. I created you and I bought you back.”

And that is God’s perspective on us. He created us, and then He redeemed us, He bought us back out of the slave market of sin. And He is deeply committed to us and we belong to Him in two different ways. We are twice God’s.

When I understand the towering blessing of redemption, of having been bought out of sin, of having been rescued from destruction, I become a better worshipper.

I don’t know if you have ever experienced that kind of rescue, but if you have, spiritually or physically, you become a better worshipper.

In Alaska a man and his son went out fishing on a Sunday afternoon. The man was a commercial fisherman and had his own boat. They went out for just a little rod and reel fishing one afternoon off the coast of Sitka, Alaska. A powerful storm came up. They started to head for the town, and before they got in, this boat began to sink. So this man gave a mayday call to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard brought a helicopter out. They dropped a harness down, the man got in it and grabbed his son, and they literally pulled the two of them off the deck of that boat as it went underwater.

That’s the kind of rescue that we have experienced in the spiritual sense. And when I experience that kind of rescue, I become a better worshipper of God. I don’t want to ever forget the feeling of being rescued. As Dr. Al Smith wrote in his beautiful song,

Once so aimlessly I wondered round the tangled paths of sin.

All about me seemed so hopeless, Doubts and fears without, within.

Then a voice so kind and gentle Spoke sweet peace unto my soul.

Gone my days of sin and wandering, Since the Savior made me whole.

Now my life is full of gladness, All my days are filled with joy.

I no longer walk in sadness, Happy songs my lips employ.

For I've learned the wondrous secret Only those in Christ can know.

'Tis the peace of sins forgiven--Joy that makes my glad heart glow.

I have never lost the wonder of it all.

I have never lost the wonder of it all!

Since the day that Jesus saved me and a whole new life He gave me,

I have never lost the wonder of it all!

The next thing to know about God, verse 5a, God is glorious. “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices….”

I think they’re really talking about two things here. One of them is the glory of God and one is the power of God. I want to save the power of God for just a minute.

In the Bible, glory is usually represented as light, as brilliant radiance. People who came in the presence of God literally saw a bright white light like staring up into spotlights. It was so great you couldn’t look at it. The glory of God is represented by incredible light. Probably the most famous illustration, Luke 2:9, this is the announcement of the birth of Christ. “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”

Or Exodus chapter 34. Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and saw the glory of God, and it burned into Moses’ face, and when Moses came off the mountain it says his face was radiating. God is a glorious Being, and when we discover some of His glory through His Word, we become better worshippers of Him. If we see just a little piece of His brilliance, we become enamored with His greatness and we are better worshippers.

Number 5, verse 5, God is a Spirit. “… and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” Most Bible scholars think that John in Revelation chapter 4 verse 5 was seeing some lamps that represented the Holy Spirit of God. And the fact that there were seven of them doesn’t mean that there were seven Holy Spirits of God, but simply means that God the Holy Spirit is completely adequate, a full Being. He has all that He needs. The parallel verse is Isaiah 11:1. I want to read that to you, and as I read Isaiah 11:1-2, Isaiah will describe the Holy Spirit as having seven different facets to Him. Listen to it please. “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2  And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”

God is a Spirit whom you could not photograph. You couldn’t carve Him. You couldn’t make a sculpture of Him. Jesus Christ took on the form of a man to pay for our salvation as He came to earth, and He still retains that human form. But God the Father is not a Being whom you can carve. He is sharply different than Dagon. You can’t take a photo of Him.

Number six, verse 8. God is Holy. “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”

To be Holy simply means something that is sacred, set apart for sacred uses, that is never used for something profane, something ordinary, something common. God is not common. God is not profane. God is not an ordinary Being. He stoops down to have fellowship with us, but we must never confuse Him with an ordinary, common, Being. He is completely without sin, completely sacred in every one of His activities. He never thinks anything common.

Number seven, verse 8, God is also Almighty. He is all-powerful. He can do anything He wants to do as long as it is consistent with His nature. Obviously, He can’t do something evil. He is not motivated to do anything evil. He is completely good.

Jeremiah 32:17 is a great parallel verse to this. He says, “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.”

Jeremiah said there, God made everything that is by speaking. He just spoke and even though nothing existed, when He got done speaking, everything existed! If you are related to a Being who can do that, whatever little need in your life is well within His power.

I must never say in my life, I’ve got this problem and it’s beyond God. God created all of this by speaking. He started with nothing. It’s not like He remodeled something. He started with nothing. And a God with that kind of power can certainly meet any kind of need or circumstance or despair in my life.

Number eight. God is eternal. Verse 8 again. “…Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”

In other words, God is a Being who has always existed. Philosophers talk about Him as the uncaused Cause. He is self-existent. He always was. He is not subject to time. God is not waiting for Monday. You may be waiting for Monday. Maybe you’ve got a birthday coming. Maybe you’ve got a package coming. Maybe you need to get to the bank and over a check. You’re waiting for Monday to get here. God’s not waiting for Monday. For God everything is now. God exists in the eternal now. He is the Great I AM. God is not waiting for Monday and He is not regretting something already past. God is not bound in the limits of time. He is outside of time.

And finally, number nine, God is the Creator of everything. Verse 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 is the uncaused Cause who created everything that is.

The second thing that is said there about God is that God is an independent Being. He just is. He doesn’t need me to exist. He doesn’t need someone to help Him exist. He doesn’t need oxygen to exist. God needs no conditions to be. He just is.

A rock in your back yard doesn’t exist because it’s hard or because it’s resistant to erosion. It exists because God willed it to exist. I exist because God wills me to exist.

God is the only Being who doesn’t need something outside of Himself to continue existing.

The better I understand the nature and the Person of God, the better worshipper I am.

The last thing I want to do today is look at the response to God that the people in Heaven had, and try to motivate us to have that same kind of response to God

Worship Issue C. Our response to the God of eternity is very crucial.

Number one. We respond to God in worship because of Who He is. Plain and simple. He has done things for us, He has promised things for us. Those are all good things to worship Him for. But the main reason to worship God is simply because of Who He is. We looked at just nine different things that are realities about Him. The believers and the angels in Heaven that we looked at in Revelation 4 were worshipping God simply for Who He is.

There are some people who don’t have a clue about the greatness of God. Therefore they have responded with indifference. They don’t have a clue about the nature of God and therefore they respond with anger. They don’t have a clue about the nature of God so they respond with demandingness. God is calling for us to understand Who He is and respond with worship.

Number two, we respond to God in worship in a number of ways. First of all, by speaking about His character and by declaring His great glory—verses 8 and 9.

I talked last time about the fact that if we read a great book we talk about it. We go to a great restaurant, we talk about it. That has its roots in the fact that we are natural worshippers and that we need to respond to our great God in that same way. To talk about God because of His remarkable greatness. And this chapter gives a little glimpse into His greatness and helps me to be a better worshipper.

Verse 9. I worship God by giving Him honor and respect by simply holding Him in high esteem. By letting Him be a Being of incredible honor to me. Part of our disadvantage in America is that we’re not good at honoring anyone. A lot of people are not good at honoring parents, not good at honoring those set in authority over us, not good at honoring anyone, and we have lost touch with what it means to honor God.

We give praise and worship to God by giving thanks to Him—verse 9, for all that He is, for all that He did, for all that He promised. For His blessing to me in this very day.

God is a Being of such incredible generosity and the right response from me is to be thankful. I’m afraid in America we have lost track of God’s generosity. We have become a very demanding group of people.

I heard a story about a pastor named Martin Rinkhart. He was a pastor in Germany during the Thirty Years’ War in 1636. He wrote a song. And during the Thirty Years’ War this man buried over 5,000 people in one single year. This pastor did fifteen funerals a day for a year—for people who were killed in the war and those who died of disease. And in the midst of this awful struggle around him, he wrote a thanksgiving prayer for his children. I want to read the prayer to you. It’s a song.

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices.

Who from our mother’s arms has led us on our way, with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Here is a man in just conditions you and I cannot imagine, and he has a spirit of thankfulness, gratefulness to God.

One of the ways we become worshippers of God is by having a spirit of gratefulness.

Verse 10, by having a spirit of humility and by submitting to His control in our lives. These believers, these 24 elders fell down before the throne of God and basically what they were saying is, God, we are humbling ourselves before You. We submit to You. You are a great God. They were submitting and humbling their lives before the God of eternity.

We are called to be people who are submitting to His greatness, not just on Sunday morning when we sing, but on Monday morning when we go to work.

And then verse 10, we also worship God by giving gifts to Him. These people had crowns. They were made of gold. And they fell down to worship and apparently as a natural response they said to themselves, what do I have to give Him? Worship means I give Him something, and they took the crowns off their heads and threw them down before Him.

Part of worship is giving to Him. The offering time is not filler time. It is worship. It is necessary to well-rounded worship. It is a reminder that God is a great God, a great King, a wonderful Lord. And we don’t want to come to Him empty-handed. He deserves everything. It’s part of being like one of the Elders of Revelation 4 who fell down and said, what have I got on me to give Him?!!

Revelation chapter 4 is a sharp contrast to 1 Samuel chapter 5. Revelation chapter 4 is a little glimpse into the incredible God that we worship. And God is calling us to be people who understand the nature of God better, and because we understand the nature of God better, we have become better worshipers. Dagon is a sorry excuse for a god. The best thing that a false god can do for anyone is to fail them early so they have a chance to turn to the One True and Living God of the Universe, the God of eternity.

I’d like to close the message today be reading a very short part of a prayer. The prayer is entitled The God of All. It comes from a book called The Valley of Vision. Think with me about greatness of God in your own life as I read, please.

“Oh God whose will conquers everything, there is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying You and being engaged in Your service. You are all in all, and all enjoyments are to me what you make them, and no more.”

That one sentence again, “You are all in all, and all enjoyments are to me what you make them, and no more.”

—PRAYER—