Reverence is the prerequisite

You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

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today. And.

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page through the links below. Good morning church.

Feel like it's been a while. So I feel like we should start

with our usual proclamation. Does anyone remember it?

It's been a few weeks. The Kingdom of God is within us.

Amen. This morning I wanted to talk a

little bit about worship and that's something that the Lord

has been placed on my heart recently and, and just how

that's modelled for us in the word of God.

And there's a lot of instances in the word where that's

modelled, but I really, really like and, and the Lord's been

speaking to me a lot through the Book of Revelation lately.

And it starts with, I want to start with, yeah, chapter 4,

verse 8, day and night. They never stop saying holy,

holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is

to come. And I think that's just so

beautiful. I love that's one of my favorite

passages in the word because it is a constant day and night.

It is a constant song of, of, of the living creatures in heaven.

They sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

And then you have to ask yourself, what does holy

actually mean? Because these, these living

creatures, they sing this day and night 24/7 for all of

eternity. And it's pleasing to the Lord.

And, and I was talking with dad a few a few weeks ago and, and

he told me holy is the best word in, in a human language to

encompass the characteristics of God because God and all of his

goodness and his mercy and His Majesty.

He has eyes like fire. There's a sword that comes out

of his mouth. He walks among the seven golden

lampstands. There's so many attributes of

God. There's so many words that could

be said to, to ascribe worth to this to, to our God, that a

lifetime could never be enough and eternity could never be

enough. English, any language, English,

Hindi, like no, no human language could be ever ever be

enough to ascribe worth to our God.

But through His word and through example of the four living

creatures, the Holy Spirit God, He gives us this beautiful word,

and it is holy. How beautiful must this word be?

How much, how much meaning could be in this word that the four

living creatures say it over and over and over again for all of

eternity? How beautiful is this word that

every language on earth has a word for the word holy.

Then no matter what tribe, what tongue, whatever native language

you speak, you can ascribe worth and worship the Lord worthily by

saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

These are my favorite words to pray to the Lord.

These are my absolute favorite words to pray to the Lord and,

and in times in my personal worship I've I've spent just

like I can just repeat this over and over and over again.

Lately I've come to a realization that these are the

best words that I could ever say to the Father Holy, holy, holy.

Each time I repeat this word, a new characteristic of God comes

in my head and it's a new reason to worship him.

I mean, you can, you can, you can sing holy, holy, holy.

You can say it all you want, but the prerequisite for worship is

reverence for the king. If you don't have reverence for

our God, then you can say holy, holy, holy all you want, but the

reverence for the king is what is needed.

Revelation for Chapter 9 says whenever the living creatures

give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and

who lives forever and ever. And I want to hone in on who

sits on the throne. Chapter verse 10 says the four,

the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and

worship him who lives forever and ever.

I'm going to skip over to chapter 5.

Chapter 5, verse 13 says, then I heard every creature in heaven

and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is

in them singing to him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb.

We sang that song this morning. Jesus, we enthrone you and that

is that's, that's so beautiful to me because when we, because

when we enthrone our king, when we crown him with many crowns,

when we build a throne for him to sit upon that his reference.

The elders, the living creatures, they sing holy, holy,

holy 24/7 for all of eternity because they Revere this king so

much. These elders, these living

creatures, they, they're in the presence of God, people, they're

in the presence of God 24/7. They're in the throne room.

And what the Lord was saying to me is that as you increase your

reverence for God, your sensitivity to his presence also

increases, right? Like some, some, like some

people might feel hot or some people might feel cold or some

people might get goosebumps or, or there might be a little

tingly sensation and that's all fine and good.

That's, that's not to say that's not the Holy Spirit.

It absolutely is. But from person to person, I've

found, I've found that that can look so different.

There's some people will feel hot, some people will feel cold.

My dad likes to say that he's like a piece of wood.

He doesn't feel anything like that.

But that's not to say that he doesn't.

He's not, He's not in the presence of God, right?

What the Lord has been saying to me recently is that, and what

I've found is that I know I'm in the presence of God and I know

that the presence of God is thick and tangible when I have

an undying urge to worship him. That is the litmus test.

It's not like a physical feeling, it's not like an

emotion, but it's an obligation to worship the King of kings.

When you're in the presence of a king and you reverend you, you

Revere him that much, the only appropriate response is worship.

You could be sensitive to the presence or you could you in, or

maybe you're not. But whether you're sensitive to

the presence in the physical or whether you're not, these two

people, one who is sensitive, one who is not, they're both

going to have that same obligation.

They're both going to have that same reverence for the King of

kings, the Lord of Lords, and they're going to want to worship

him. The elders, the living

creatures, they're in the throne room of God 24/7.

But what about us, right? We're on earth.

I want to flick to on a flip to Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

If you want to open up your Bibles, Luke chapter 10, verse

Luke 10:38

38 at the home of Martha and Mary.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a

village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening

to what he said, but Martha was distracted by all the

preparations that had to be made.

She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister

has left me to do all the work by myself?

Tell her to help me, the Lord replied.

Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, You are worried and

upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.

Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away

from her. Isn't that beautiful that Mary

has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.

In the throne room of God, the living creatures, the angels,

the elders that they see our king on the throne.

But when you look at the case of when you look at the case of

Mary, Mary has enthroned Jesus in her heart.

And as a response to that, she sits at his feet.

Isn't that beautiful? We sang that song this morning,

the King of my heart. Because when you enthrone our

King in your heart, you will have no you'll, you'll have an

obligation to to worship him, to pour out your love on him.

Earlier in Luke, I'm not entirely sure what the exact

references, but there was a man who got who got set free from a

lesion of demons in him and 1 he got set free.

He sat at the feet of Jesus because in that moment when he

was set free from a lesion of demons, when the demons had left

him, he enthroned Jesus in his heart.

That feeling of liberation, He, he looked at Jesus as the king

that he is and he enthroned him in his heart and what came out

of that, He sat at the feet of Jesus.

That reverence, that prerequisite, the the

enthronement of Jesus in your heart is where the heart of

worship comes from. Is, is Jesus enthroned in your

heart? Is Jesus enthroned in your

heart? Or in other words, if we flip

back to Revelation chapter 5, verse 13, it says then I heard

Revelation 5:13

every creature in heaven and sorry, sorry, actually, I'm

going to go back to Luke. We're going back to Luke because

Jesus says what he says. Only one thing is needed.

My Bible has these little cross references, and they're really

helpful for Bible studies because that cross references to

a Psalm of David in Psalm 27 and in Psalm 27 verse 1, he says one

Psalms 27:1

thing. He says, what one thing I ask of

the Lord, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the House of

the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of

the Lord and to seek him in His temple.

The one thing Mary chose that one thing that was better, and

it will it was not taken away from her.

David is one of the characters in the Bible that I look up to a

lot. He's probably my favorite, not

to pick favourites, but because he was a man after God's own

heart. He was a man who knew how to

worship, Revelation 513 says. Then I heard every creature in

heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea.

That's not to say that the earth and heaven, that's the divided.

It just means that no creature is worthy.

Every creature under the earth, on the sea, and all that is in

them, singing to him who sits on the throne.

And unto the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power

forever and ever, and all that is in them.

That sounds familiar, right? If we flip to Psalm 103, it's

another Psalm of David, and the first verse says praise the

Lord, all my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

See, this is how I know. This is how I know that David

was a man who knew how to worship, who was a man after

God's own heart, who could worship him worthily.

Because David and the apostle John who wrote the Book of

Revelation, separated by hundreds and hundreds of years,

David who spoke Hebrew, and John who wrote in Greek, received the

same revelation of the Lord. Why?

Because creation song, heaven song never has ceased even for

one minute. That when David was writing

Psalm one O 3 he said, Let all my inmost being praise his holy

name, the same way that all of creation and all of their inmost

being blesses the name of the Lamb.

The creation song has never ceased even for a second.

And hundreds of years later, when John was receiving

revelation from the Lord and writing down what he saw or what

did he see, he saw the creatures and all of their inmost being

blessing the name of the Lamb. Shouldn't that be our prayer?

Shouldn't that be our prayer? That all of that inmost being to

bless the name of the Lord. Because of creation, song to

heaven. But if heaven, song to the Lamb

never ceases, even for a minute, if it was singing to God our

Father when David was writing Psalm 103, and it was still

singing when the apostle John received revelation from the

Lord, if it never ceased, then why should we?

How am I looking for time? Oh, actually, I've got, I've got

time. That reverence, that reverence

for the Lord is what I long for. That reverence for the Lord is

what we should all long for, that we can sing holy, holy,

holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, over and over

and over and over again. And it never gets old.

Because every time you say that word holy, every time it leaves

your lips, a new thought, a new characteristic of God comes into

your mind. We can never understand how

incomprehensible God is in all of His Majesty and all of his

glory. It's winter right now in

Christchurch, right? And, and, and we're fortunate

enough that when we step out of our homes, we can look to the

Southern Alps and they're capped with snow.

And it's beautiful. It's beautiful.

God did that. God spoke and mountains rose

from the crown. God spoke the world into

existence. We can't fathom how great and

majestic our God is. My prayer is that I understand

how much I could never understand or never comprehend

God's majesty. When you have that reverence for

God, when your reverence for Him increases, you will be able to

sing holy, holy, holy, and it will never get old.

There are so many reasons to worship God.

One of my favorite, absolute favorite verses in the Bible is

from Revelation 411. You are worthy, our Lord and God

to receive glory and honour and power.

For you created all things, and by your will they were created

and have their being. Isn't that beautiful?

He is worthy. He is worthy.

We have so much to learn about worship from the Book of

Revelation. The elders, they fall down, they

cast their crowns, they lay prostate.

They, they, they lay on the floor.

I encourage you guys as you, as you go into worship in, in your,

in your own private, private worship times when you go to the

secret place, I urge you, I urge you to get uncomfortable with

the Lord, to do something that you haven't haven't tried

before. If you haven't kneeled before,

before the Lord, kneel before the Lord, humble yourself before

him. If you've never laid flat on the

floor before the Lord, I urge you to humble yourself before

the Lord Lay flat on the floor. Because it's it's such a

beautiful act of worship, because what we do in the

physical is it corresponds to what happens in the spiritual,

right? That reverence for God is all

you need to enter the throne room.

That reverence for God is all you need to enter the throne

room. When I was younger, I would go

to India with my family and we would go on these missions

trips. And I remember this one in

particular. We went to this remote village

out in the Whops on and we had a prayer meeting there.

And at the time I didn't the weight of this didn't really

sink in, but it does now. And we they would just worship

this village would just worship the Lord with so much reverence

and so much like energy. It was in.

It was incredible to watch. They would just go for hours and

hours. They would sing until their

throats like they they needed water.

They would have water breaks for their worship.

Isn't that insane? I need water when I play like 30

minutes of basketball or whatever and they need water

after they sing to the Lord. I just think that's so

beautiful. So if increasing our reverence

for the Lord increases our sensitivity to his presence, how

do we increase our reverence? And it's simple, it's, it's

reading the word of God. It is by meditating on his word,

meditating on what he's done, meditating on, on him and all of

His Majesty. Because we could never

comprehend it. But when we understand how much

we could never understand, that's that's where it is when

we can sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was

and is and is to come. Oh my God, for time.

Good revelation talks about the Lamb

who was slain and the Lamb who was slain before the foundations

of the world. And I grew up hearing this and

it was it was good. It was, it was great.

I was like, yeah, I know the Lamb was slain before the

foundations of the world because it was all in the mind of God,

right? The Lamb was slain, but it only

dawned on me like last week why he had to be slain before the

foundation of the world. I understand how many of us know

the Lamb had to be slain for essence, right?

It might take me a little while to find the passage because I

didn't bookmark it, but we're going to turn to Titus.

Sorry guys, I should have bookmarked this.

Here we go. Titus chapter one verse 2 says a

faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life which

God who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time and

at His appointed season. He brought His word to light

through the preaching and trusted to me by the command of

God our Saviour. I want to hone on that first

part of faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal

life. How many of us know that that

hope of eternal life is only brought to us because of the

work the Lamb has done for us on the cross?

Amen. Which God who does not lie

promised before the beginning of time.

When God spoke the world into existence, He spoke and the

world was God who does not lie. God, who's speaking is His doing

that when He speaks, He does so. If He promised before the

beginning of time that we would have hope of eternal life, what

must have happened when He spoke?

The Lamb was slain. The Lamb had to be slain before

the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time,

because at that time, before the beginning of time, God promised

us eternal life. That is why we sing.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and

wisdom and strength and glory and honour and praise, because

God is faithful that when he speaks, He does.

In chapter 5, whenever the Lamb is addressed, I notice that it

says praise. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and glory

and honor and praise. Then I heard every creature in

heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and

all that is in them, singing to him who sits on the throne, and

to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power.

That word praise, I love it so much because it carries a joy

with it, the joy of the Lord when we praise the Lord, that we

carry the joy of the Lord with us.

And in Luke chapter 10, it's sorry, I'm just trying to find

Luke 10 · chapter mention

the passage again. Luke chapter 10, verse 18.

Luke 10:18

I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

I've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions

and to overcome all the power of the enemy.

Nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice if the

spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are

written in heaven. We have something to rejoice

about because our names are written in heaven, not because

of anything we've done, but because of what the Lamb has

done for us on the cross. That the majesty in heaven came

down to earth, emptied himself of all that is God, hung on a

cross that had our name written on it, and instead our names are

written in heaven in the book of life.

Isn't that something to rejoice about from the foundation of the

world in the mind of God? Exactly before the foundation of

the world, because we existed before the foundations of the

world in the mind of God. Thank you, Owen.

That was beautiful. That is why we ought to give

praise to the Lamb who was slain, because when we praise,

we rejoice in the work that he's done.

We rejoice in the Lamb that was slain for our sins and that our

names are written in the book of life.

And as a result of that, what happens?

We are given authority to trample upon snakes and

scorpions and to overcome every power of the enemy.

Nothing will harm us. See, when you praise the Lamb,

you exalt the king, You build that throne, and simultaneously

you remind Satan of his place. And where is that?

It's beneath our feet. Worship is such a beautiful

thing, guys. Worship is such a beautiful

thing because our God is so, so holy and our God is so, so

worthy that a lifetime could never be enough, that words

could never be enough. I've still got a little bit of

time left, so I want to touch on praying in tongues.

Because words can never be enough, right?

The English language could never be enough.

No human made language could ever be enough to ascribe the

worth that Jesus is worthy of our minds.

No human mind can comprehend God in all of His glory and His

Majesty. But there is someone who can,

and that is God Himself, or if you will, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit who is God, is able to comprehend all that is

God. And when the Holy Spirit gives

us words in that heavenly language, He gifts us that

opportunity to bless. He blesses our tongues and our

lips with the praise of the Most High, which is so much more

beautiful. It's, it's, it's, it's so

beautiful. I love, I love praying in

tongues. I love worshipping God in

tongues because I know that the Spirit is blessing my tongue

with praise to the Most High, which I could never even

comprehend. If you've never prayed in

tongues before, I urge you, I urge you to seek out that gift.

In Ephesians, Paul says that every spiritual blessing in the

heavenly realms is given to us because we are united in Christ

Jesus. So take that and run.

If you've never prayed in tongues before, it will change

your life. There's a place.

There's a place for worshipping in in English or whatever your

native language is, but there's also a place for worshipping in

tongues because it is that gift to us from the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, we praise you because you are holy.

You are holy, You are holy, You are holy.

We thank you for the revelation that you've given to us through

your holy Word. Thank you for the example that

you've given to us in the Book of Revelation, for the way that

the living creatures and the elders and the angels sing to

you 24/7. Lord, I pray that you would

increase in all of us a reverence for you.

Help us to understand how much we could never comprehend you in

all of your majesty. God, incomprehensible, we give

you all the glory and we give you all the praise to him who

sits on the throne. And unto the Lamb be praise and

honour, and glory and power, forever and ever.

Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing

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