Essential Week 6: Worship & Celebration

Talking about uh worship today, and before we get into it, I'd love for you to take a second and to uh look at what worship's gonna look like in heaven.

We're gonna look at some scripture right now, and I'm just gonna invite you to look read these words, imagine it in your mind, and uh let's get after it.

Check this out.

Revelation chapter 4.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

Worship in heaven.

Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast.

The voice said, Come up here and I will show you what must happen after this.

And instantly I was in the spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it.

The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones, like Jasper in Carnelius, and the glow of an emple circled his throne like rain.

Twenty-four thrones surrounded.

Twenty-four elders.

They were all clothed in light.

From the throne flashes of light.

In front of the throne, seven furthest lights.

This is the sevenfold series of colours.

In front of the throne was the shiny sea of glass.

In the center in the rest of the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes.

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.

Each of these living beings had six wings.

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.

Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever.

And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things and they exist because you created what you pleased.

That we get to join in on Sunday mornings together corporately and worship.

And thinking about that heavenly picture.

Man, we have a powerful God who deserves all honor, glory, and praise.

Now, worship looks a lot of different ways, especially here on earth, on this side of heaven.

When I was in college, I took an American denominations class, which in the course of this class, uh the professor asked for us to go as students and attend 10 different churches during the course of the semester, which was a lot.

We also, as a class, y'all remember I went to Cumberland, Eastern Kentucky, as a class.

Uh we went to together, all as a class together, we went to a snake handling church in Eastern Kentucky.

Whoa, right?

Um I went and worshipped at the Catholic Church and the Unitarian Church and Church of Christ Scientists.

I did all 10 different churches I went to be a part of.

And uh thankfully my girlfriend at the time, Emily, went along with me.

Kind of the most fun one that we experienced was we went to a Catholic church together.

And um this was my first experience at Catholic Church.

We got some former Catholics in the house.

Obviously, I knew about some of the rituals and things, and we walked into the this small country Catholic church down in eastern Kentucky, they were so sweet.

Old lady handed me like a cheat sheet pamphlet of the different things that were going to be said and when to stand up and sit down, and they were so sweet.

And so we were going through all of that, and it came time to do communion.

And in the the little cheat sheet guide, it said, if you're not Catholic, go up with the procession, because you all probably are young Catholic Church, um, you know, the the priest is the one who gives out the communion, gives out the Eucharist.

And the little guide said, if you're not Catholic, still go up, but cross your arms to signify that you're not Catholic.

This is like all in the little guide.

We're trying to figure it out.

First timers.

And so I don't know what you think.

When I think when it says cross your arms, I don't know what you think of that, but I just thought it was like this, like just like cross your arms, kind of like normal.

Well, apparently what they wanted you to do is like cross like this, like you know, you're like in the tomb or something.

Um so we're we're we come out of the row and we're walking up towards the priest, and God loved this small church and their heart for the Lord.

Uh their priest was he was foreign, he wasn't from eastern Kentucky, had a really strong accent, and Emily was in front of me in the line, and we're getting closer and closer to the priest, and everybody else kind of knows what's going on, and what's we and we both feel like, man, what what's going on?

We're coming up to the priest, and uh he looks at Emily and he uh stins the wafer, and Emily is like kind of shaking her head, no, and and he looks at her and he says, Are you Catholic?

And she couldn't really hear him and his accent, and in a very panicked voice, she said, You want me to lick it?

The wafer.

And he pulled it back from her face real quick.

No, are you Catholic?

And she's like, No, we're not Catholic, we're not Catholic.

And I was like, Oh gosh, I'm so like we went around and sat back down, and I was sitting there thinking, like, why in the world?

Like, why did she think?

So we sat down and we're like whispering.

I'm like, why did you think that he wanted you to lick it?

And she was like, Well, they're all drinking out of the same cup, I don't know.

Like I said, worship looks a lot of different ways here on this side of heaven.

I remember when I went to go visit my brother in Korea, we went and visited uh a Buddhist temple there.

Just as part of the experience of being in the country.

We walked in this beautiful space, these gorgeous trees, people everywhere.

We walked into this open temple with two giant, taller than the ceiling in this room, two giant golden statues of Buddha.

And people were fervently worshiping a golden statue with burnt offerings and with candles, and I felt a heaviness in my heart.

I felt a heaviness in my heart because here we are two thousand years from the one true King Jesus coming and paving a way for us to be in relationship and salvation.

And I stood in this place where people are literally still worshiping golden statues and idols.

And I thought people need to know about Jesus.

People need to know about the true power that we have in Christ.

Set people free from worshiping things that are not the one true God.

You know, that's the thing, is that worship is in all of us.

We're created as beings when we're created as those people, and God put a heart in each one of us that we worship something.

Now, depending on what that thing is, it comes down to where you have your mindset to worship.

Here's the thing: what is worship?

Worship is praise and adoration of the most important, the highest thing in your life.

And so we think about what our priorities are, and whatever that top thing is, if that top thing to you is not God, you could inadvertently and not realizing it put in the place of praise and adoration that you make sacrifices to a job, a relationship, another human being, money, passion, success, what you're sacrificing and giving your life to.

And so one of the easiest ways to figure out what in the world am I worshiping, is to ask this question to you.

When times get tough, when things are hard, what do you run towards?

What do you run towards?

To seek satisfaction and to get comfort from.

Is it God?

Is it prayer?

Or is it something lesser?

A relationship, food, entertainment?

When the going gets tough, what's the thing that you run to?

One of the easiest ways to look at what we worship is to look at our wallets.

Where do we invest our time?

Where do we invest ourselves, our resources, our monies?

What do we worship and what is at that top priority in our life?

Makes me just wonder today.

In this house, do we have our priorities straight?

Do we have our priorities in line when it comes to worship?

Look at what Jesus told Satan.

Satan was tempting him and was trying to get him to worship him.

Matthew 4 10, Jesus says, Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him, for the scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Hearkening back to the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, 30, where God says, You must not have any other God but me.

God is a little g God.

In the Bible, you're gonna see as you read through the scripture, there's God when it's capitalized, talking about the one true God, Yahweh, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

And also the scripture talks about gods, these little g gods.

Little g gods, obviously, of the day, there are different religions that were going on, false religions, but also a little g god cannot just be another religion.

It can be whatever it is that you place in that high priority in your life.

There's this word in the Old Testament and in the New Testament called idolatry.

Idolatry.

And what does that mean?

What does it mean to have idolatry?

It means that you're placing something above God, something that you're worshiping, you're giving to, you're sacrificing to, you're giving thanks to and adoration and praise to over and above God Himself.

And idolatry is this.

When you make a good thing, a God thing, and it becomes a bad thing.

Idolatry is when you make a good thing, a god thing, and it becomes a bad thing.

It's worth us asking the question, and it's the worst, it's worth us looking introspectively and think, okay, who am I worshiping?

I think you've already figured out when we're talking about worship that we're not just talking about one hour on Sunday mornings.

Worship is you as a person, and it's a lifestyle of praise that you give to God.

Look at what the scripture says in John 4, 23.

Jesus says, But the time is coming, indeed, it's here now, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Everybody say spirit?

Everybody say truth.

For the Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.

Jesus himself.

He said, when the Son of Man is lifted up, he would draw all men unto himself.

Jesus, when he was lifted up on the cross.

He would draw all men unto himself that people would worship in spirit and in truth.

The spirit, you, the person that you are, who you are, your innermost being, your heart, your mind, the spirit, man or woman that's inside of you, are you worshiping God with your whole life?

That God has a top priority, not just on Sundays, but Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as well.

That you're giving an act of worship the way that you live your life.

Look at what Romans 12:1 says.

Romans 12:1

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable.

This is truly the way to what?

Worship Him.

Scripture tells us that we're giving our whole selves unto God.

We're giving unto God a living and holy sacrifice for it to be acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

And that itself is a true act of worship.

Now, see, what we're doing right now, this is corporate worship.

This is we're us coming together all at one, corporate not being like a company, but corporate meaning a gathering of people, of us together assembling as the body of Christ to worship God collectively, and this is very, very good.

From the early days of the church, believers got together and sang songs and hymns.

They encouraged one another, gave hugs, and I don't know if they had five high fives back then, but they did something.

To lift each other up, to pray for one another, and they gathered together and they made sure they did not miss it.

Hebrews 10, 25.

The instructions given to the church.

Let us not neglect our meeting together as some do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

We don't need to neglect getting together for worship.

We don't need to not do it for comfort reason or don't have time.

But instead that we should be giving to the Lord the praise and worship that he's due.

A couple chapters later, Hebrews 13, 15 says, Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.

A sacrifice of praise.

Everybody say, sacrifice of praise.

I think it's such interesting language, that verse.

Because we know the Old Testament that they give sacrifices to the temple that came and they sacrificed animals for the remission of sin.

But when Jesus came, he was the one true sacrifice for all, the spotless Lamb.

The one true sacrifice that was sinless, a finally a sinless offering to God that could be given so that sin could be eradicated and we could be in right relationship with Jesus.

But even after that, God doesn't ask us for us to bring a sacrifice of an animal, thankfully.

Or of anything other than a sacrifice of praise.

A sacrifice of worship.

I think it's interesting because sometimes praise and worship is a sacrifice.

Getting to church on Sunday mornings.

Sometimes it can be a sacrifice, right?

Saying, you know what, we're not gonna miss, we're gonna be there.

We're not gonna sacrifice to our calendar or to travel.

We're gonna be in corporate worship with the Lord and with other believers because we're gonna bring a sacrifice of praise.

We're not gonna sacrifice to the God of success or the little God of laziness or of comfort.

We're going to bring a sacrifice of praise.

I don't know if you think about worship in that way, but I want us to all begin to think about worship in that way because I know for me, it's very easy not to grasp why in the world we worship God.

It's very easy, especially for guys, to come into a worship uh service like this, and you got some singers up here who are singing, and it's like, okay, it's American Idol time now of the service.

They're gonna sing the songs, I really like them.

I'm gonna think whether or not I like them.

I'm gonna say, I never heard that song before.

I don't even know how to Google that song.

How can I find it later?

I'm never gonna hear this again.

Why don't they sing hymns?

Because that's what I know.

Or, man, that person that the the music's like a little off, or maybe it's really good, but I'm gonna kind of stand here and I'm gonna cross my arms, and this is the time of the service that people sing to me.

Because I don't really know what's going on.

And hey, listen, I get it.

I get it.

I get it because it's like weird.

What other part of your life, other when other than like when people sing Christmas carols, do you get around together and I'll sing?

Or karaoke night?

Or when you go to a concert.

But what are we doing?

We're coming together as the body of Christ and we are giving a sacrifice of praise.

God asked for us to take our time together.

For us to open our mouths and sing praises to Him.

Why?

Because we're joining in with Heaven with an army of angels who are circling the throne right now and is saying, worthy, worthy, worthy.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

And we get to join in with heaven to proclaim, God, you are top priority in my life.

I'm not gonna sacrifice or give worship to any other thing above you, but only to you.

Sometimes it is a sacrifice.

Something that's was really impactful to me last week.

There's a family in our church that are really struggling.

They're going through an extremely hard time.

The details aren't really important.

All you need to know is it's like the wheels kind of feel like they're coming off and their family, the dynamics, life, career.

And in the midst of that hardship, we were talking with one another.

And the wife said, I love this.

She said, I'm gonna praise my way through this day.

I'm gonna praise my way through this day.

Send a song for them to listen to and sing to.

Send a portion of scripture their way.

But I know that this person in our church.

In the midst of a major storm in battle, her posture, her stance was that she was going to praise her way through that day.

Even in the midst of the difficulty.

Why?

Because that storm, all the other things, are not more important than the Lord.

Here's some ways, here's some things that you can do for you to give an upgrade, give a boost to your worship.

There's seven quick things.

I'm gonna go through them super fast.

First, practice the presence of God daily.

Something for you to do.

What are you listening to in the car when you drive?

What's on your phone?

What are the what's the podcast?

Is there tunes that you listen to?

Can you listen to worship music?

Can you practice the presence of God?

Can you get alone?

Can you pray?

Can you open the scripture?

Can you practice the presence of God daily?

Second thing is you can have you have deep worship experiences.

That's gonna make you and call you and cause you to actually give something time, your attention.

Let's go deep in worship.

Prepare for gathered worship.

There's a family on their way to church today, today, that one of their kids threw up in the car on the way here.

I know how crazy and distracting it can be trying to get your whole family or you and yourselves just to church.

But how can you prepare for the gathered worship experience together?

Can you pray on Sunday mornings?

Can you get to bed on Sunday or on Saturday night?

Can you pray some and say, God, prepare my heart to worship you tomorrow, to dedicate the time to you?

And then we get together to experience the power of God as we worship Him.

To cultivate a dependency on the Lord as Him is our number one priority.

And we're in the midst of that worship to defeat the distractions by gratitude.

I've got a I I have a six-week old.

Sometimes she cries in the service, you know?

It's okay.

I'm just thankful that they're here, and I'm thankful that we're all here and we're worshiping Jesus, and I can overcome those distractions by being grateful for what God's given us.

And then lastly, learn to offer that sacrifice of worship and praise.

It is truly a sacrifice.

But in doing so, it's going to produce a great joy in our life.

Look at Philippians 4, 4 through 7.

It's my last scripture.

Always be joy be full of joy in the Lord.

I say again, rejoice.

Let everyone see that you are considerate in all that you do.

Remember that the Lord is coming soon.

Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.

Then you will experience God's peace, peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

The scripture says, rejoice.

Again I say, rejoice.

Man, as followers of Jesus, we should be having a good time, okay?

It should feel like a party here.

I want it to.

Man, we crank the music.

It's so loud half the time.

I'm like, man, it's so loud in here.

I love it though.

I'm like, let's party.

There's music all throughout the place.

Like I'm in Sunday mornings, I'm just giving high fives and fist bumps.

What's up?

What's up?

How y'all doing?

Happy to see people.

Man, I am.

And we should have a joy in the Lord.

Man, I feel like it is a sin for church to be boring.

Can I get an amen?

It should not be boring.

It shouldn't be boring for our kids.

It shouldn't be boring for us because we're literally worshiping the Savior of the world.

We have so much to be grateful for.

And there's a time to be reverent, there's a time to be contemplative, there's a time to be quiet and fold your hands and all that kind of thing.

But I think by and large, we need a party.

We need a party because God is doing something powerful in our midst.

Y'all know that I've been able to be hanging out at K-State a little bit more recently.

Got into serve with the football team over the last few weeks this season, which has been a really cool experience.

On Thursday.

Thursday, I got to give the devotion for the team.

At the end of the devotion, I got to give a gospel presentation, and five football players raised their hand to receive Jesus on Thursday.

Praise the Lord.

You know what?

We need to celebrate that, don't we?

Because heaven is.

And you know what?

What you celebrate, you cultivate.

What gets celebrated, gets replicated.

What you celebrate gets repeated.

Man, God is moving powerfully in our midst.

And I know that he has so much more.

He has so much more for us.

It's my heart.

I want you all to grow in your faith.

We've done this whole series.

We've talked about prayer and fasting and meditation and study, and we've talked about solitude, and we've talked about submission and service and confession and guidance and worship and celebration, all for the ends for us to go deeper in our walk with Jesus and for us to be able to grow in our faith so that we can take somebody else with us and then we can party when they come to know him.

Man.

God's already doing it in our young church.

Six months in.

That's amazing.

I believe it's amazing.

Because I know that he's got more and more and more.

Imagine those nine families that experience a life change of Jesus.

Imagine when that's 90 families.

Imagine when it's 900 families.

Imagine if it was your family.

Maybe that is for you today.

Maybe you came into this place and you have not yet experienced the life, the joy, the power that comes by being in right relationship with God and by following Jesus.

I want to invite you for you to not wait on that, but for you to step into a relationship with God.

For you to find freedom in Christ.

For you to be able to worship not yourself and all the things that aren't going to satisfy, but truly to worship God and give your life for Him and in doing so be satisfied in this life and in the next in heaven.

Today be me today that you need to ask Jesus to forgive you, come into your life, to your heart, to your mind.

The way you can do that is by way of prayer, to make a statement to the Lord, to believe it truly, to ask Jesus to save you.

And so if you bow your heads right now and pray with me, Father, I pray over this room this morning, God, that there's anybody in our midst, Lord, that has not yet experienced your salvation.

What it means to follow you, what it means to be forgiven, all the mess and the sin that we've done, God, I pray that today, Lord, today would be their day of salvation.

That God, that they would give their heart, their mind, their life to you, Father, as an act of worship that will lead them from this day all the way into eternity in heaven.

If that's you in this place, nobody looking around, you can pray to the Lord something like this.

God save me.

Forgive me of my sins.

I give my heart and my life to you.

So that I can be in heaven with you one day.

Thank you for what you did on the cross for me.

I will worship you because of it.

Thank you for saving me.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you prayed that today, and not just some magic words, but if you prayed that and actually genuinely believed it in your heart, I'm so thankful that you've taken the step to follow Jesus.

Would love to know about it.

There's a spot on the connect card.

You can say, Hey, I want to follow Jesus.

And we'd love to celebrate with you and to come alongside you.

But right now we're going to return some praise.

We're going to give a sacrifice of praise by song before we roll out of here.

So I'm going to invite you to stand to your feet as we worship the one true King.