The Question for Today's Church, Part 3

Thank you, Kristen. Have you ever noticed that we become very passive about the things that really matter, and yet we're passionate about the things that don't matter? Think about this past week in your life and the things that you really got excited about, and the things that you didn't get excited about. So many times we talk about worship and coming to honor the king, but very few people are very passionate about their worship. They're passionate about other things that don't matter, but not passionate about eternal things.

We become very passive when it comes to our worship. And yet, somehow, someway, if we're going to be the kind of church that God commends, our worship must be passionate. We've come off the study of the seven churches of Asia Minor. The very first church, the Church of Ephesus, had lost its first love.

They were condemned for that. Oh, they had dealt with evil in their church, and they had been committed to the teaching of the Word of God, but yet their love for God had grown cold. Their love for God had begun to wane. And the Lord God condemned them for that. You've left your first love.

There's something that's become more important to you than me. And because that's the case, you must repent. You must remember from where you have fallen, you must repent, and you must repeat your first deeds.

So the Lord would condemn the Church of Ephesus because their passion for God had begun to wane. We can't even begin to imagine the kind of passion that every one of us needs to express to our God without studying the truth of God's Word. In fact, way before God ever gave the command in Exodus 20 that we are to worship Him, there are to be no rivals for His affection, we are to completely adore Him and honor Him, there was a man who expressed that there would be no rivalry between him and God. God would be everything to him.

His name was Abraham. If you have your Bible, turn with me to Genesis chapter 22. And through a very simple illustration, I'm going to show you a man whose worship was passionate. God had come to Abraham. God's already called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. God has already saved his soul. And God calls to him again and says, I want you to bring your son, your only son, the one that you love. Very important. Why? Because it's the first time that love is mentioned in the Bible.

Genesis chapter 22. At the same time, Genesis chapter 22 tells us that the very first time that worship is mentioned in the Bible.

Okay? Because the two go together. When you love God, you worship God. If you love something else more than God, you worship that. And so it's very important that you understand that the very first time that love is mentioned in the Bible and worship is mentioned in the Bible is Genesis chapter 22.

And it goes like this. Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, he said, here I am. He said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. In other words, Abraham, take the son you love. You need to offer him up as a sacrifice to me. You need to slay your son. You need to kill the son that you love. You need to take that son to a mountain I will show you and you offer him up to me.

Abraham didn't say, hey, wait a minute. You made a promise to me. You made a promise to me that through my seed all the nations of the world will be blessed and this is the seed I have him and now you want me to kill him. Lord, that doesn't make any sense. But Abraham never debated with God, did he? It says this, so Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and he split wood for the burnt offering and it rose and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you. We're going to worship. Here's the point. You cannot worship God unless you sacrifice everything for him. You can't. You can't worship God passionately unless you're willing to give up any obstacle that comes between you and your God. You can't worship God the way he wants you to worship him unless you're willing to set aside every rival to him.

Remember it was Tozer we quoted last week who said that true worship means that there's not even a remote possibility, a remote idea in my mind that there will be anything that comes between me and my God because I am so wholly devoted to him because if there's anything that comes before you and your God that becomes your God. And Abraham took his son. He did not know what was going to happen. We believe he understood that there would be a resurrection even though he had never seen a resurrection.

Hebrews 11 tells us that simply because he says I and the lad will return. How can he return if he's dead? Lest there be a resurrection. So Paul would say in Romans chapter 12 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. That you put your life on the altar because this is the only logical way to worship the king. Everything else is illogical but this is the logical way. You present your body a living sacrifice. You see Abraham if he would have taken Isaac and put him on the altar which he did and if the angel of the Lord did not stop him he would have slayed his son.

Isaac would have been a dead sacrifice and Abraham would have been a living sacrifice. That's what a living sacrifice is. It is willing to slay anything that might come between me and my God. That there will be no rivals for his affection. That everything about me adores him. That I worship him with all of my being. That's what it means to be a true worshiper of God. And very few people ever worship God that way. We're just holding on to too much of the world. We have too many prized possessions that we hold dear to our lives.

And the Lord says what will you give for me? The Lord would later say in verse number 12 as the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. Now I know you are a true worshiper. You fear me because you are willing to give up the dearest and the best for me. Let me ask you a question.

What did you give up to be here today? Anything? Anything? What did you give up to be here today? Are you willing to give your job up to be here? Are you willing to give up your sleep to be here? Are you willing to give anything to be here? And when you come what do you give? Do you give just a portion of what you have or are you willing to give all that you have? What do you give to the Lord while you're here? Have you truly come to worship the king? Or have you come to play at worship? Have you come to put in time for God?

Have you truly come to worship the king? You see most people won't sacrifice for God. They won't sacrifice their money. They won't sacrifice their job. They won't sacrifice their time. They won't sacrifice their marriage. They won't sacrifice their friends because they're too valuable to them to give them up to worship the king. What will you give up to worship the king? Abraham was willing to give up his only son, the son that he loved. Now he had Ishmael. He also had Isaac. God said you take that one, the son of promise.

You take the dearest son and you offer him up for me. Abraham did. He did. He took his son. He tied him down, was about to slay him and the angel of the Lord stopped him. Now I know that you fear me. You see for the most part we're just not there. We're just not there. So we ask the question of the church today. Are you the kind of church that God commends or God would condemn? The church that God commends makes sure that the word of God is absolutely paramount in their lives and the worship of God is absolutely passionate in their lives.

There is great passion. Now when I talk about passion, I'm talking about Abrahamic kind of passion. I'm not talking like a Jewish passion because the Jews, they'll gather together on Saturday and their worship will be passionate. But they worship, very carefully this is what I'm going to say, the wrong God. Because they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah who is God in the flesh. So they say they worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but in reality they don't because that is Jesus and they refuse to worship him as their king, as their God.

They rejected their king. They put him on a tree. So their worship is passionate but they worship the wrong God. A lot of my Catholic friends have passion in their worship but they worship the right God in the wrong way. Because they do it through works. They do it through symbols. Trying to gain a higher standing with God. We need to worship God passionately as Abraham did. Whereas we need to give away everything for the sake of the honor of the king. That's passionate worship. We told you last week that that kind of worship affects expectation.

In other words, it results in the expectation that God demands from his children that they worship him in truth and in spirit. And that kind of worship emphasizes preparation. There is a certain preparation that needs to take place. We told you last week there needs to be a clean heart, a clear heart, a connected heart, a contrite heart, a compliant heart. But before that there needs to be a converted heart, right? There must be a true conversion. Because a converted heart wants to worship the king.

We know that because of what the prophet Ezekiel said, or God said to the prophet Ezekiel. When he said, Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among nations where you went. God says I'm going to act in accordance with my name.

He says, I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land, and then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. That's a converted heart.

A converted heart is a heart committed to God, where God causes that person to follow his word. And therefore, a converted heart is crucial to preparing for the worship of the true God. Because you are to worship him in spirit and in truth. In spirit is the inner part of the man, the soul of the man, the heart of a man, and that heart must be fixed upon God. It must be right before God. So it emphasizes preparation. That's where we left off last week. Point number three, and they're in your notes if you want to follow.

Point number three is this, that passionate worship always exalts proclamation. Always exalts proclamation. It was John R. Stott who wrote these words about worship. He says, The word and worship belong indissolubly together. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of his name. Therefore, acceptable worship is impossible without preaching, for preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known.

Far from being an alien intrusion to worship, the reading and preaching of the word are actually indispensable to worship. The two cannot be divorced. Indeed, it is their unnatural divorce which accounts for the low level of such contemporary worship. Our worship is poor because our knowledge of God is poor, and our knowledge of God is poor because our preaching is poor. But when the word of God is expounded in its fullness, and the congregation begin to glimpse the glory of the living God, they bow down in solemn awe and joyful wonder before his throne.

It is preaching which accomplishes this. The proclamation of the word of God and the power of the spirit of God, that is why preaching is unique and irreplaceable. Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 14. He says in verse 23, If the whole church assembles together, and all speaking tongues and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, speak forth the truth, proclaim the truth, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

How does the unbeliever know that God is among his people? Not by the miraculous sign gifts, but by the proclamation of the truth. Because the proclamation of the truth is that which convicts the soul of a man, which causes him to bow down and to worship the king, and he will know, they will know, that God is in your midst. It's a proclamation. True worship, we worship God in spirit and in truth. And true, passionate worship always exalts proclamation. The proclamation of the word of God to the people of God.

So they will get to know and understand the God they say they love and adore. That's why we're to sing praises, Psalm 47, only with understanding. Never sing praises without understanding, always with understanding. Why? Because your praise is rooted in the knowledge of God. And that's why, that's why Paul says in Colossians 1, that we teach and admonish every man, that we might present every man complete in Christ. And so true worship that's passionate not just affects expectation, not just emphasizes preparation, but it exalts proclamation because number four, it entails recognition.

It entails recognition. That is, true passionate worship entails the recognition of the God we say we love and adore. And that can only come through the exaltation of the word of God, the proclamation of that word to the people of God. And people who worship the king, worship him in fullness because of who he is. Isaiah, Isaiah 6, verse number 1. He said, woe is me. Because he had received a glimpse of the beauty and the glory of the king. And he fell down. And the very first thing that he realized was that he was a man of unclean lips.

When he saw the glory of God, he recognized that he was a sinful man. Listen, when you come to worship, if there's not a conviction, you haven't worshiped. If you come to worship the king, if God's word's not proclaimed, there can't be conviction. But when there's conviction, you realize, when you sense the vastness of God, you see the sinfulness of man. When you see God for how he's portrayed in scripture, all you can say is like, Isaiah, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. Or like Manoah, who said, oh, we have seen the living God, we're going to die.

Or like John in Revelation 1, 17. When he got a glimpse of the glory of the resurrected Christ, he fell down on his feet like a dead man. Why? Simply because if you see God for who he is, then you will see all of your sin as ugly as it is. Because he is a holy and pure God. In Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17. Disciples Peter, James, and John. And got up into a mount, a high mountain in Galilee. And there the Lord God unzipped his flesh. And there was what is called the Mount of Transfiguration.

Where the Lord was transfigured before them. It says in verse 2. He was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with them. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the cloud said, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. They were terrified. Because they had encountered the living God. You see, true passionate worship entails a recognition of the one true God. And when you recognize him for who he is, you can't help but bow in submission to him as your king. You see, so much of our worship today is frivolous. We call it worship, but it's really not worship. It's just a bunch of people gathering together, jumping up and down, singing some songs, hearing some sermonettes for Christianettes, and going home.

That's not worship. Worship truly is encountering the living God. That's why we all with unveiled face behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, 2 Corinthians 3.18. We behold the glory of the Lord. We open this book, the Bible, up. And it's all about our risen Christ. It's about the beauty of his name and us recognizing how glorious he is and bowing in submission to him as our Lord. So, a worship that's passionate affects expectation, emphasizes preparation, exalts proclamation, entails recognition, and number four or five, enables celebration.

Enables celebration. The Bible says in Psalm 95, verse number one, these words, O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. In whose hand are the depths of the earth. The peaks of the mountains are his also. The sea is his. For it is he who made it in his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Listen, true worship enables celebration. Our gathering together for God inhabits the praises of his people.

When we gather together, it is to be celebratory in nature. We are to celebrate what the Lord God has done. That's why we gather together on the first day of the week.

To celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We know who he is. We know what he's done. And we gather together to celebrate his name. To sing joyfully to his name. To shout joyfully to his name. That's why in the book of Revelation, over 80 times, the key word is loud. Great. Because everything God does is huge. And the book of Revelation is all about the loud praise. The shouting joyfully to God that we are to worship and honor. Can you imagine being in heaven for eternity with noise so loud? You can't begin to comprehend it.

Because that's what heaven will be like. It will be filled with praise and honor of the name of Christ. And so we gather together and we can barely move our lips to sing a song. And yet we are to shout joyfully to the Lord God, our maker, our creator. And when you recognize who he is, you can't but celebrate what he's done. And maybe our worship is so weak and impotent because we truly haven't come to recognize the true nature of our king. Because once you know who he is, it enables celebration. We come, Psalm 22.3, God inhabits the praise of his people.

Luke 19, remember the triumphal entry? In Luke chapter 19, they came and they came singing or saying praises to God. In Luke chapter 19, as the Lord would descend the Mount of Olives, it says, as soon as he was approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen. Shouting, shouting, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. You will note that when they began to shout and praise God, there was no one person leading worship.

Because true worship enables celebration. It causes you to celebrate the king for who he is. Now granted, Israel at this time was celebrating his miracles, not his message. That's what the text says. They loved what he did for them. They didn't necessarily love him. But the point being is that there was a celebration of his presence. There was a celebration of the individual. There was a celebration of their king. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At that moment, they believed that he was their Messiah.

It was just a few days after that, they would crucify him. But once you recognize who he is, you can't help but celebrate all that he's done. So it enables celebration. Next, true worship that is passionate encourages participation. Encourages participation. Worship is not a spectator sport. You don't watch worship. Worship is participatory in nature. We are ones who participate in the worship. And so over in Hebrews chapter 10, 24 and 25, Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembly together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near. There's a stimulation that we encourage one another to participate in the ministry. True passionate worship encourages participation. Participating not just in the singing. Participating not just in the praying and the praising. Participating not just in the listening to the preaching. Participating not just in exercising my gifts, but participating in all that worship entails. Because I am to participate with the body of Christ in my worship experience.

And true worship that's passionate encourages participation. It stimulates one another to love and good deeds. It moves people off the pew. It moves them to give. It moves them to praise. It moves them to prayer. It moves them to celebration. It moves them to be a part of all that's happening. So it encourages participation. Number seven is not in your notes. I added it. It enlivens reflection. It enlivens reflection. Revelation chapter eight says this. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

There was silence in heaven. Heaven in Revelation is characterized as loud. Everything about the book of Revelation is characterized by that which is great. But when the seventh seal is broken, and out of the seventh seal comes seven trumpets that will be blown. And out of the seventh trumpet that's blown, seven bowls of judgment that are poured out upon the earth. That happen in rapid succession because the seven seals span the seven year tribulation period. So when you come to the seventh seal, you're at the end.

But there's silence in heaven. Why? Because the redeemed in heaven, the angels in heaven, are completely awestruck over all that's about to happen. And there's silence. There's something about the character of God. There's something about the judgments of God. There's something about the power of God that causes us to remain silent before Him. Which enlivens our reflection on the power and the presence of God. That's why the Bible says in Psalm 76, The earth feared and was still when God arose to judgment.

The earth feared and was silent when God arose to judgment. Habakkuk 220, The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him. Zephaniah 1.9, Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near. Zechariah 2.13, Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation. You know, so many times we go to worship the King and spend very little time on reflection. And I'll take responsibility for that here at Christ Community Church. Because there needs to be more of reflection on our part.

As to the awesomeness of the power of the living God. We need to be able to sit and reflect on who He is and what He's done. And so many times we just come, we're so busy to get in and get out. To get in and move on. And we live in this fast-paced society anyway. But to be still and know that I am God is something that doesn't necessarily characterize American culture. And yet, something about the character of God should cause us to reflect on His beauty. We are to behold the beauty of the Lord. Psalm 27, verse number 4.

The Bible says that we are to in silence and stillness know of His greatness. And we need to be people who reflect more than we do. To sit in silence and let the overwhelming quietness of our time teach us about the beauty of the King. We, as a people of God, need to truly worship Him. There's a reason the psalmist said in Psalm 23 that the Good Shepherd leads us beside still waters. Right? He leads us beside still waters so that He will restore our souls. Sometimes we're so busy, we don't have time for restoring our souls.

And yet the Good Shepherd causes us to lie down in green pastures. To stand or to sit beside quiet waters for a time of reflection that our souls will be restored. And passionate worship enlightens reflection. We want to reflect upon the King. We want to be enamored with His glory. We want to be overwhelmed by His presence. Well, if worship does affect expectation and it emphasizes preparation because I worship Him in spirit and it exalts proclamation because I worship Him in spirit and in truth that will then entail a recognition.

If it entails a recognition of the God I say I love and adore and serve it will enable a celebration on my part. And as it enables a celebration, it encourages a participation which enlivens my reflection upon the King and His splendor. True, passionate worship is the kind of worship that eclipses anticipation. It eclipses, far exceeds anticipation. Listen, worship, true worship exceeds that which I anticipate. Remember Moses way back in Exodus chapter 33? He wanted to see the glory of the King. Moses said these words.

Moses said to the Lord to see you say to me bring up this people but you yourself have not let me know whom you will send with me.

Moreover you said I have known you by name and you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore I pray you if I have found favor in your sight let me know your ways that I may know you so that I may find favor in your sight.

Consider too that this nation is your people. And he said my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest. Then he said to him if your presence does not go with us do not lead us up from here for how then can it be known that I have found favor in your sight? I and your people. Is it not by your going with us that we and I and your people may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth? Then the Lord said to Moses I will also do this thing of which you have spoken for you have found favor in my sight and I have known you by name.

Then Moses said I pray you show me your glory. Show me your glory. If you know me, if you know me by name let me see your glory.

Let me see your character. Let me see you for who you are. He said I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. But he said you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Moses you want to see me but you can't because if you see me you're going to have to die. So I can't let you see my face and live because the Lord dwells as 1st Timothy 6 says in unapproachable glory.

So listen to what happens. Then the Lord said to Moses behold there is a place by me and you shall stand there on the rock and it shall come about while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away and you will see my back but my face shall not be seen. And then it says in verse 5 of chapter 34 then the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed.

The Lord God proclaimed. Why? Because Moses was going to see God based on what God said. The Lord God proclaimed. What? The Lord, the Lord God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations Moses made haste to bow down toward the earth and worshipped.

He worshipped. He worshipped based on what God said not based on what he saw because if you know what God says you will see him.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Matthew chapter 5. John chapter 14 verse number 21 If you love me and keep my commandments I will disclose myself to you. I will manifest myself to you. You will see me with a spiritual eye. You will grasp me. You will understand me. You will come to grips with the reality of who I am. When God proclaimed this is who I am and he listed those attributes out before Moses he fell down and he worshipped because true worship exalts proclamation and when proclamation is exalted it entails a recognition and Moses saw God but it would eclipse his anticipation it went way beyond anything he could imagine it would be Lord show me your glory I want to see who you are God says if I let you see my face you're going to die but I will hide you in the cleft of the rock I will cover you with my hand and I will pass by you and you will see my afterglow you will see my hind parts but I will proclaim to you who I am and when you hear me you will see me and when he saw him he fell down and he worshipped it would eclipse his anticipation because he would behold the beauty of the king and that's what true passionate worship does it goes far beyond anything we can begin to imagine in our minds because we've seen the true living God and that only happens through the word of God when we behold the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face to see his beauty and to worship in his presence number nine true biblical passionate worship encompasses consecration it encompasses consecration David said it well 1 Samuel 24 verse number I'm sorry 2 Samuel 24 24 when he bought that piece of real estate in Israel the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite for 50 shekels of silver when Arunah wanted to give it to him he said no I will not offer anything up to the Lord that doesn't cost me I'm going to pay for it it's going to cost me and therefore true passionate worship encompasses consecration it encompasses a contribution it encompasses a submission it encompasses just a giving away of what I have for the glory of the king and that's what Genesis 22 comes into play which we talked about when we first started our time together this morning that Abraham was willing to consecrate everything to God set it aside for God because he was everything to Abraham how about you?

is the Lord God of the universe everything to you? the one man said that anything that you have that you cannot give away you don't own it, it owns you it's so true we are owned by so many things because we are unwilling to give it away for the sake of the glory of the king when we come, Hebrews 13 we offer a sacrifice of praise and why is it called a sacrifice of praise? because you know what? when you come to worship the king you don't always feel like praising him but when you give the things to God that need to be given to him your job, your finances, your children, your husband, your wife when you give them to God you can come into his presence and shout joyfully you can come into his presence with thanksgiving you can come before him and sing praises to his name because those things that have weighed you down you have given over to the Lord who is the sovereign creator of the universe you've given them to him which frees you up to praise him to do whatever he wants to do with them and that's why it's called a sacrifice of praise because truly that's what we do and so we offer our lives as living sacrifices because it is the only, as Paul says logical form of worship this is the only logical thing to do based on the mercies of God based on the identity of God the character of God the person of God the only logical thing to do is crawl up on the altar and say Lord, all my ambitions, all my dreams, all my hopes I sacrifice for you because I will not hold anything higher than you you are the king and true passionate worship encompasses consecration and lastly, number 10 true passionate worship exhibits repercussions there are certain repercussions that reverberate throughout the assembly when people come to worship the king some of them generally or corporately and some of them individually for instance when you look at it corporately you realize that the Savior will be praised and exalted whoso offers praise glorifies me Psalm 50, verse number 23 and true passionate worship does exhibit certain repercussions that is, there are certain things that are going to reverberate through the church and that is, that the Savior is exalted exalted and praised and on top of that the saints are purified and edified because the word of God has been proclaimed and they have examined their life in light of the word of God and they have been built up in the faith and those things happen when worship is passionate and not only is the Savior praised and exalted and not only are the saints purified and edified but on top of that sinners might well be persuaded and evangelized verse 14, 24 and 25 they come into your assembly God's word's been lifted up you sang songs in light of the character and nature of God and they've heard about your God and they've come to hear His name be praised among His people and they fall down and worship Him those things should happen when worship is passionate but individually there are things that happen listen, how do you know you've come to worship the God you say you love let me give you a few a few things to consider one how do you know you've come to worship the King He erases your fears He erases your fears listen, when you see God for who He is and all of His splendor and power and glory there's nothing or anyone greater than He is He is sovereign He rules over all His providence is seen clearly in the working of man God is at work and when you passionately come to worship God He will erase your fears He will move them all away remember Hebrews 2 because of the resurrection of Christ and His victory over Satan Christ has removed the fear of death He's removed it the sting of death is no longer in the presence of the believer because Christ is the victorious one and when I see the Lord, the living God for all that He is and all that He's done He erases my fears they're gone because my God is powerful my God is true my God is sovereign I can trust Him, I can believe in Him I can hold fast to Him not only if He erases my fears He will exhilarate my spirit He will cause my spirit to rejoice because I can trust Him I can believe in Him that's why the psalmist said in Psalm 62 my soul waits in silence for God alone why?

because His spirit had been put at ease when God erases your fears He exhilarates your spirit when He exhilarates your spirit He will enlarge your perspective you'll receive a perspective that goes way beyond that which you know because you see things from a heavenly perspective not an earthly perspective when you truly worship the King you see things from His point of view not your point of view see? and therefore the natural repercussion is that my whole perspective on life is going to change because my God rules and reigns my perspective on the upcoming election changes because God's in charge my perspective on my physical condition changes because God is in charge I see things from a heavenly viewpoint instead of an earthly viewpoint I see things from God's eyes instead of through my eyes and that's what God wants to do in our lives so many times we have come into His presence but yet have not worshipped Him as He has designed His people to worship Him may that not be the case for us may we learn may we learn from the Lord may we have a worship that truly is passionate based on what the word of God has said that truly we worship Him in spirit and in truth we are the marked ones we are the ones who truly worship Him in Revelation chapter 12 Revelation chapter 12 it says in verse number 10 I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and power and the kingdom of God and the authority of His Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down He accuses them before our God day and night and they overcame Him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they did not love their life even when faced with death think about that these are the brethren who are saved in the tribulation these are the ones who have heard the angel in heaven proclaim the eternal gospel that says fear God and worship only Him and they did they feared God and worshipped Him and they were marked as those who did not love their lives even unto death that is a true worshipper they love God so much their lives just don't matter anymore now ask yourself is that me?

let me pray with you spend just a few minutes reflecting back on what the word has said to us today and ask yourself am I willing to present my life as a living sacrifice so many times Lord we hear you speak through your word and we really don't take time to digest those things that you have said to reflect upon them to apply them to our lives our prayer is that as a church we would be marked by our worship because it truly is in line with what your word has said we've held your word in high esteem because we love you and now we want to worship you as you have prescribed it for us in scripture may we love you more than we love our lives may that be demonstrated every day for the glory of your kingdom in Jesus name, amen