Spotlight on Private Worship
Notes
Transcript
Handout
As we continue our sermon series, “Mirrors to Windows,” I would like to once again put a spotlight on the spiritual discipline of worship. This time, let us take a deeper look at the discipline of corporate worship. Once again, I would like to share with you an illustration from Dr. David Jeremiah’s book, My Heart’s Desire,
“ OUR HEARTS ARE POUNDING as the great doors swing open before us—the doors where earth is left behind and heaven begins. Almost feverish with anticipation, you and I step into the great room, and we’re immediately and completely overcome by all that lies before our senses. No eye has seen a room of such sparkling magnificence; no ear has heard such music. There is no art or edifice in the mortal world that could have prepared us for this. We can’t speak or even allow our world-weakened eyes to wonder at the glories that fill the throne room of the King of creation. Without our even realizing it, great tears are streaming down our cheeks. The ceiling of the room is too high to be seen; it rises majestically to the farthest reaches of infinity. The walls gleam with a living tapestry of the King’s mighty works through the ages. And the angels surround us as embodiments of light and song, lifting up praises to the Name that is above all names. The very air we breathe has the sweet taste of paradise and intense joy that is beyond description. But all these things only lead our eyes to the throne, for the King Himself is there.
Our eyes are inadequate to take in His glory, of course. But we do gaze upon His hand, the hand that shaped the contours of every planet and flung every star into space, the hand that brought light from darkness and order from chaos. Something rustles in His hand: an ageless document. The scroll glows with the light of wisdom and providence, and it is sealed not once, but seven times. Here in our Father’s hand is the title deed to earth. The biblical Book of Revelation describes this scroll and its procession of seals. Through the chapters of that book, the seals are unfastened one by one as the final business of time, the final details of God’s plan, come to final fruition. Judgment and wrath lie in the unfastening of these seals; redemption and victory, too. As each seal is removed, every question finds its solution. Every riddle is forever solved. And for that reason, the eyes of hundreds of millions of souls watch intently. Did I mention the hundreds of millions? This room, of course, lies outside the created realms of time and space. History and proximity are irrelevant here. That’s why the throng stands with us in this room. From every land and every epoch of history, they have come to see the final decree of destiny at the throne. But there is one soul who has stepped forward, and we know in an instant who he is: John the Apostle, transported through a vision on the island of Patmos. He is here to observe and to record the prophecies that will become the final book of the Bible, the one
we call Revelation. John is the messenger, the reporter. He, you, I, and all the countless throng of witnesses, are standing in the scene recorded in that book’s fifth chapter. And now, an angel comes before us. He cries out, in a powerful voice, a message for the assembled throng. “Who is worthy to open the scroll,” he asks, “and to loose its seals?” Is it our imaginations or does the great throng, in one motion, step sadly backward? With the angel’s question, all eyes are lowered to the floor. A spirit of mournful gloom can be felt for the first time, for no one counts himself worthy to accept the invitation to unfasten those seals. We find that, just like Jesus’ beloved friend John, we are weeping aloud. We’ve been reminded of the things we’d rather not consider—the stains and blemishes that make us unfit to know the unspeakable joy of perfect fellowship with the Father. Here in this scroll, the one we dare not touch, lies the final plan by which Jesus will have ultimate dominion over the earth. Here is the picture of a world with Jesus as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Here is the judgment to be poured, finally and irrevocably, upon the evil ones who have rejected Him. How can we not be eager for the unfolding of such a document? Is no one worthy to step forward and open that scroll? We continue to weep bitterly. In the next moment, we will hear a voice of comfort from over our shoulders. As we’ll see, our tears can be dried, for there is hope.” (end quote)
SONG “Is He Worthy”
There is hope as Revelation 5:5 reveals,
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
In response to Jesus opening the scrolls the inhabitance of heaven sing a new song in verses 9, 10, and 12,
Revelation 5:9-10
And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons 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 5:12
In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
May this image of perfect worship remain with us. May it permeate our hearts and minds with wonder.
SERMON POINTS
Which leads us to our first point this morning.
1. May you put wonder into your private worship.
Before I can speak about worship I must first help us come to an understanding of the idea of wonder. The work of the rational mind alone cannot handle worship. We cannot quantitate it, measure it, or use the scientific method on it. This is, in part, because of the intimate relationship between worship and wonder; which as Dr. Jeremiah asserts,
“…are all about coming to the end of our measurements. In the presence of Almighty God, as the apostle John discovered, the sense of wonder comes naturally and leaves us changed. How could we respond any other way? But without the capability of awe, where we stand at the edge of ourselves and gaze beyond, we will never come into His presence.”
I hope our opening illustration gave you a taste of what I am talking about here. Wonder- awe.
When was the last time you experienced it?
Was it at the first site of your spouse on your wedding day?
Was it the first time you held your new born child in your arms?
Or was it further back, like the time you won a sports game or when your young eyes beheld the tree on Christmas morning?
When were you last wide eyed in wonder?
Perhaps this is what your heart has been longing for and what so many of our lives lack.
As Dr. Jeremiah so eloquently puts it,
“ We’ve wandered through the emptiness when we could have been wondering at the fullness of the love of God. Your heart’s desire, even if you haven’t come to realize it, is to live every moment in the wonder of worship.”
Wonder is therefore a very important part of your private worship. Another word that can be used is reverence. This, in my opinion is wonder in action. Several of the Hebrew words for worship mean to bow to the ground as a physical display of reverence.
As Dr. Jeremiah explains,
“Bowing is something we can do in both body and spirit. Worship, then, is the proper recognition and celebration of God, returning to Him the glory that He alone deserves and honoring Him with our lives and our words.”
Your private acts of reverence may include sitting in silence before God, bowing or kneeling, speaking out or declaring who God is.
(You could take time to model this, kneeling down and declaring God’s attributes “you God are good, Lord you are Holy, You are wise, You are Kind, You are all knowing, You are all loving, You are the same yesterday- today- and forever, etc).
Another way to do this is to use Scripture for your inspiration, like Revelation 4:11,
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
That brings us to our second point this morning,
2. May you put gratitude into your private worship.
Last week when we studied Isiah 6 and here too in Revelation 5 we see a powerful truth about ourselves. Whenever the sin riddled human soul encounters the wonderous glory of God our first response is conviction. Isiah cried out, “woe is me, I am undone.” John wept uncontrollably as he longed for someone worthy enough to unfold the scroll and reveal the final notes of God’s love song of redemption.
In both cases, God was the one to act. For we are woefully inadequate to work salvation on our own behalf. God cleansed Isiah through the burning coal of radical grace and perfect Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf was worthy to open the scroll. When we embrace the wonder of that truth, of that incredible gift, our grateful response is worship.
And since we are saved, let us take the time to be grateful for all the other good things God has given us. Beautiful sunsets, the laugh of a child, the taste of our favorite food, the comfort of a hot shower. Whatever goodness, beauty, and joy there is in this world- find it and thank creator God for it.
Perhaps you have heard messages on this before, about having a worshipful attitude of gratitude. The Bible is full of instructions for us to do so (NIV):
Such as Ephesians 5:20, “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Or 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Or Psalm 107:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Friends, worship God daily with a heart that overflows with gratitude.
That brings us to our third point this morning.
3. May you put adoration into your private worship.
Consider this illustration,
A young lady lives in a five story building in Boston. She has many hopes and desires but what she experiences next is beyond anything she could imagine. Because no one ever imagines it could happen to them. A spark, that catches into a flame, and in moments the building is enveloped in flames- her home was on fire and she was trapped with no way out on the fifth floor. The gathered crowd below could only watch in horror as she pleaded for help through her open window.
Then, out of the smoke shrouded darkens a ladder appeared, coming to rest upon her window. A tall, handsome, and brave fireman gathered her into his arms and carried her to safety. In the chaos that followed- of EMTs and flashing lights she lost sight of her rescuer. But later, she phoned the fire department and learned her rescuer’s name and she picked up the phone and with a heart full of gratitude she thanked the man who saved her life. Little did she know that a new fire began that day, the blaze of romance that one day would lead to a life full of love, marriage, children, and grandchildren.
Perhaps the problem we have with worship is that we fail to make that “phone call.” Jesus has saved us, we will never know what an eternity without the goodness of God will be like. We have been rescued from hell’s heat. But we never make that call, we never develop that emotional connection, that love for the one who has rescued us.
Having used a similar analogy, Dr. Jeremiah explains,
“Oh, we do give Him a call every now and then, whenever we need another rescue. ‘Help, Lord! I’m mired in financial problems!’ Or, ‘Get the ladder again, Master! I’m out of work!’ We see God as Someone who answers the 911 call, slides down the silver pole from heaven, and comes to rescue us from the flame—and politely disappears in the aftermath. We never take the step from salvation to adoration, from brief encounters to a deep relationship for every day and every moment. If you and I can’t imagine giving our lives in such a way, perhaps we need to have a deeper experience with the Man on the wooden ladder— the Man who stretched out His arms to show how much He loved us.”
Will you take that step? Will you call on Him daily? Through the spiritual discipline of private worship may you express your grateful adoration. If you do, your intimacy with your Savior, with your God will grow.
That is what the Spiritual discipline of private worship is all about. It is adoring the one who adored us first. Who loved us enough to extend to us radical grace. Who loved us enough to suffer and sacrifice on our behalf in order to bring us salvation.
That brings us to our next point this morning.
4. May your worship be authentic.
Having served as a worship pastor for most of my adult life, I discovered that for most people the topic of worship is a very personal thing. Most people have an opinion, a preference on how worship should be done. What few people realize is that how we express our worship is not as important as our heart attitude as we worship.
In his famous book, The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman explains that people express love in different ways. For example, the most effective way for me to express my love to my daughter is through words of affirmation and through gifts. My wife’s love language is through physical touch. My son’s is spending quality time with him. Chapman explains that our unique personalities, abilities, and experiences have an impact on which love language fits us best. Note however, that even though people have different ways of expressing and experiencing love one thing remains the same across the board and that is the heart attitude being expressed is love.
The same can be said about our method and style of worship. For some, a worship style that is emotive or expressive is most meaningful for them. For others a more logical and systematic style of worship is most meaningful. The truth is, it does not matter if you worship God by quietly reciting Scripture or by spinning and dancing around your living room as long as your heart attitude is one of worship. When it comes to the spiritual discipline of private worship, you have complete freedom to worship in whatever way best expresses what is in your heart for God. What matters is authenticity. God wants you. He wants the real you. The worship that means the most to Him is the worship that comes from a sincere heart.
Therefore, may your heart be full of wonder, may it be full of gratitude, and may it be full of adoration as you worship Him.
That brings us to our next point.
5. May you commit to the daily spiritual discipline of private worship.
For some, this statement may be simplistic for others incredibly challenging. God wants you to commit to spending time with Him every single day in private worship. God wants you to commit to spending time with Him every single day in private worship. This means our daily devotion time our Bible reading our prayer… Is it an act of worship? Or is it a chore to be accomplished? Let it be an authentic act of worship church.
Ah, but we do not stop worshiping once our daily devotional time comes to an end. Our attitude of gratitude can go with us as we go about our daily tasks.
John 4 describes an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. In verse 19 the woman brings up one of the worship debates that raged between her people, the Samaritans, and the Jewish people. She asks, where is the proper place to worship God? The Jewish people said that the proper place to worship was in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans, isolated away from Jerusalem, believed the proper place to worship was in the mountains. Jesus’ response is profound. He told her that a time was coming when the question of “where to worship” would no longer apply. Instead, Jesus told her, God’s followers will worship in “spirit and in truth.”
Dr. Tony Evans explains what this means,
“Worship isn’t simply an event or a place—it’s an orientation. It’s a way of life. It’s the result of our decision to exalt God above everything else. We realize and acknowledge that God is truly great and worthy of all praise.”
Friends, we can worship God as we serve others, we can worship Him as we give, we can worship Him as we model Christ like character, we can worship Him by reflecting Jesus not just here within the four walls of this church but in the places outside these windows- in the everyday places in which we live our lives.
Let me close this morning by returning to the view from God’s throne in Revelation 5 and with a final quote from Dr. Jeremiah,
“ We’ve challenged you to capture with your imagination the sights John was allowed to see, for that’s why they’re recorded in the Bible. The Lamb bids us to come and worship. He wants us to stand before His throne and sing praises, to experience the liberation that comes when a divine perspective takes root within us. John, we must assume, was never again the same... If we can only learn to worship, to cast our earthly crowns before Him and exalt Him in all that we do, we’ll bring a bit of eternity back into the reality of our lives. We’ll find new vigor, new encouragement, and new joy to face the everyday situations of life.”
Let us pray.