Folks, please remember from last week: If we want our worship together—corporately—to be all that God desires for it to be, we have to be about worship … every single day!
- We need to ‘do all to the Glory of God’…
- And we need to intentionally make worship a part of our everyday lives!
But, even with that in mind, folks, are we yet worshiping the God of scripture? Is our idea of God today … God’s idea? Here’s the bottom line today: It is essential that we learn to recognize who God is! Why? Because when we do, our automatic response will always be … worship. We won’t be able to help ourselves… But my experience, both personally and with others, has been this: Most of the time, our God is too small!
Author Robert Bailey (New Ways in Christian Worship) wrote: “We cannot worship rightly until we recapture, as the principle element of worship, the overwhelming sense of awe and reverence in the presence of God.” Folks, we desperately need that in our church—in our lives—today! We need to once again take hold of that reverence for and awe for God. Why? Because when we do, our automatic response will always be … worship!
The problem we have, in this world we live in, is this: Once we’ve done something once or twice … it becomes old hat to us! Have you ever noticed that? How does the saying go? “Been there; done that!” We’re always looking for the ‘new and improved.’ Too often, we consider ourselves bored, if we don’t have the latest model with all the bells & whistles…
Our corporate worship can end up the same way, if we’re not careful. We do the same things over and over, and those things become old news to us. We need to recapture that sense of awe and reverence of being in God’s presence! When we do, the natural response will be … worship! Let’s look at what the psalmist tells us, especially in verse 4 of today’s scripture lesson. Listen carefully (Ps. 92:1-8):
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. 2 It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, 3 accompanied by the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre. 4You thrill me, LORD, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. 5 O LORD, what great works you do! And how deep are your thoughts. 6 Only a simpleton would not know, and only a fool would not understand this: 7Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. 8 But you, O LORD, will be exalted forever. – Psalm 92:1-8 (NLT)
What a great attitude! You thrill me, Lord! The psalmist seems to have a handle on reverence for and awe of God. He was thrilled by God … and in response, he worshiped! Again, we need to recapture that sense of awe and reverence in the presence of God; when we do, our natural response will be worship, too… So, how do we go about this? Well, first…
WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO HOW WE REACT TO GOD… The Bible is filled with examples of how people worshiped … in reaction to or response to … the presence of God!
Do you remember the day that God showed up on the surf (the surface of the water)? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John all record the same incident of Jesus walking on the water. By the time this happened, some of the disciples had already been trekking around with Jesus for a while. They’d seen him perform a good number of miracles. However, that night in the boat, when they saw Jesus walking on the water, something incredible happened in their hearts and in their minds…
Now, keep in mind that these guys were fisherman. They knew the properties of water—especially when it came to the Sea of Galilee. This was their home ‘turf’ … or ‘surf,’ if you will. They were keenly aware that one does not walk on the water. Swim in it, maybe. Float on it, maybe. But definitely not walk on it! So, when they saw Jesus walking on the water, coming toward them, they suddenly realized that this was not just an especially gifted man; this was God in the flesh! And what was their response? Do you remember?
In Matthew 14:33 (NLT), it tells us: “Then the disciples worshiped him. ‘You really are the Son of God!’ they exclaimed.” No one had to tell them what to do; the awe and reverence for God were recaptured … and their immediate response was … to worship!
Now, most of us have experienced God’s presence in our lives here, but can you imagine what the presence of God in eternity might be like? Folks, when we take our first steps into heaven, we won’t need anyone to tell us what to do! No instructional classes necessary; no manuals needed to guide our way. When we gaze upon the God of Glory, our only possible response will be … to worship! We’ll most likely fall down on our knees (with no arthritis, by the way), bow down before God, and worship him with our whole selves…
Now, that’ll be true in the future; but, it can also be true right now! When we catch a glimpse of God’s greatness and majesty, his power and his holiness, right here in this place, our natural human response will be: “I want to worship a God like that!” When we recapture a sense of awe and respect while in God’s presence, it’ll cause us … to worship!
I read about an author who said we do people a great disservice when we encourage them to wear fancy clothes to church! The author actually felt that issuing ‘crash helmets’ at the door and having ‘seat belts’ in the pews might be more appropriate! Why? Because if we truly encounter the God of the Bible, our nice outfits might get rumpled and we might experience a little turbulence in worship … if God’s there!
Again, it’s essential that we learn to recognize who God is! WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO HOW WE REACT TO GOD; but even more importantly…
WE NEED TO LEARN TO FOCUS ON THE GOD OF THE BIBLE… And, we need something to help us pull God back into focus…
A man went into a pawn shop one day—being a good steward of his finances—and was looking for a pair of used binoculars. The particular pawn shop he went into only had one pair in stock. The man checked them over and found that they’d apparently been damaged. No matter what he did—to try and adjust them—both sides of the binoculars would not focus at the same time…
In much the same way, since humanity’s fall into sin, God seems out of focus to us. God appears a bit blurry. What we need is something to bring God back into clear focus again. And the special focusing tool that we need is the Bible; scripture is where we get a clear picture of God. So, let’s go there right now…
Here’s the God of the Bible we’re supposed to focus on today:
- God is the One who named every star. How many stars are there … and did you know this about God?
“‘To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?’ asks the Holy One. 26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name [italics mine]. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.” – Isaiah 40:25-26 (NLT)
Folks, I can’t even keep my two kids names straight sometimes … but God named every star in the heavens! And here’s something else…
- God is the One who knows every thought. King David says of God…
“You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.” – Psalm 139:2-4 (NLT)
Now, this is the scary one; who wants anyone sitting on your shoulder at certain moments in life … that we’re not very proud of? There’s no hiding anything from God, is there? Also…
- God is the One who is limitless. Folks, God’s unbelievable resources are ours! (GRACE = God’s Resources at Christ’s Expense!)
The Apostle John wrote: “In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal. In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. 7 The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. 8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.’” – Revelation 4:6-8 (NLT)
Unlike us, these creatures are clearly like nothing we’ve ever seen; these creatures are holy by nature (as opposed to sinful by nature)… Now, they’re not God, but they do live in heaven, so they’re clearly ‘set apart for God’s purposes’ (holy)… If they, in their holy state, found God so holy that it required them to repeat over and over and over “Holy, holy, holy…,” then what will we do when realize the limitlessness of God—how great God is? We’ll worship, too, won’t we?
Folks, the truth is that our God is far greater than our puny little brains can comprehend, and yet catching even a glimpse of what God is really like … causes us to want to worship him! Let’s ask the Lord, today, to help us recapture a sense of awe and reverence, that our natural response—in this place—might always be … worship!