Three Ways to Worship The Lamb | Revelation 5:8-14 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Revelation Bible Study Series)

Please meet me in your Bibles in Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin by reading verse 8 down to verse

14. The Word of God tells us here in

verse 8 of chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living

creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each

holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the

prayers of the Saints. And they sang a new song,

saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its

seals. For you were slain, and by your

blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and

language and people and nation. And you have made them a Kingdom

and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living

creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering

myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud

voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and

wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under

the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying to

him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and

honor and glory and might, forever and ever.

And the four living creatures said, Amen.

And the elders fell down and worshipped.

Father, we ask that you teach us about worship.

Guide us, lead us and make us true worshippers, for this is

what you are looking for. We trust that you will do that.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

The main thought of this final section in Revelation chapter 5

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

is worship. It's the very last word found in

the very last part of chapter 5. Look at it again in verse 14.

And the four living creatures said Amen.

And the elders fell down and worshipped.

I'm aware that last week you heard from Pastor Benda's

message and in that message included a few very important

thoughts pertaining to worship and what true worship entails.

And I believe in God's Providence.

He wants us to explore this further.

You know, in the Book of Revelation, the word worship or

worshipping appears around 22 times.

I don't know about you, but that reflects how Christ wants us to

really meditate and understand the importance of worship,

considering the fact that this is the final book of the Bible.

So here you and I are in the final book of Scripture, and

what you find repeated among many things is worship, Worship,

worship, worship, worship. So with this in mind, we're

going to begin by answering a very simple yet imperative

question. What is worship and following

that, what does it mean to truly worship God?

I think a helpful place to start is to understand the definition

of the most commonly used word for worship in the New

Testament. It is a word prosecenaeo.

Prosecenaeo is the most common word for worship in the Greek,

and what it means is very simple to kiss toward, not as an act of

affection or endearment merely, but as a token of reverence, as

a symbol of allegiance. A very familiar illustration

might be what you would find commonly in history when

somebody would approach royalty in ancient times.

They would bow down and they would kiss their hand or even

kiss their feet to express their honor and devotion toward the

king. And so with this word, proscaneo

is also the posture of bending down, sometimes even prostrating

yourself. And that's why some people are

more comfortable of defining this word as to bend down.

So if we work with that definition, then we have our

understanding of what worship means.

It is a visible outward expression of 1's honor and

devotion towards someone, and I think that's what most

Christians believe worship to be.

But we run into a problem. The problem, which is a good

problem, is found in Jesus teaching because he deepens and

he challenges our understanding of worship.

If worship is purely just me externally demonstrating

something of appreciation or allegiance, then how do we make

sense of Jesus's words and Matthew and turn with me there?

Chapter 15, verse 8 and 9. You know this very well, where

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and he tells them in

Matthew 15-8 and nine, this people honors me with their

lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the

commandments of men. Notice that Jesus is confirming

that the spiritual leaders of his day honored God with their

lips. Would you agree that that is a

very clear demonstration of outward honor?

Yes, it is. It's audible.

It's it's visible, It's seen, it's heard.

They honor me with their lists. Well, isn't that worship?

Well, no, he clarifies, and he actually denounces it as vain

worship. How?

One crucial reason, the outward expression did not match an

inward conviction. It's as simple as that.

That's why he says, but their heart is far from me.

So based on this, worship according to our Lord Jesus is

far greater than bodily postures, is far greater than

external acts. It's more than just audible

expressions. Worship includes those displays

of reverence and adoration. But that's not the essence.

The essence of true worship is a matter of the heart.

It is an inner experience. It is an inner reality.

Christ is not after our lips saying things if our hearts

don't believe them. Christ is not looking for us to

bend our knees of our hearts are not completely surrendered.

Christ is not satisfied with you and I offering acts of devotion

and even expressions of adoration weekly in a designated

location. If we don't carry that

allegiance and that affection in our hearts outside of those

meetings, what worship is according to Jesus is an inward

delight in God that recognizes Him as supreme over all things.

That's true worship. And Jesus Christ elaborates on

this another very famous passage, and we'll turn them

together in John chapter 4. And notice what he says here in

John 4 · chapter mention

verse 23 and 24. But the hour's coming, and now

is here, when the true worshippers will worship the

Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such

people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who

worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

This sounds almost cryptic to some people.

What does it mean that God is looking after those who worship

in spirit and truth? Here's the essence of what

Christ is getting at. True worship is informed by the

truth of who God is, it must be informed by who God truly is,

and it must impact and influence the deepest part of who you are,

your spirit. So true worship includes being

informed by who God truly is and that impacting my spirit, the

deepest part of who I am. Listen carefully now.

If I am familiar with truth, divine truth, but it does not

affect my spirit, it will never lead to true worship.

And if I have ideas and conceptions about God, but they

are not grounded in truth, no matter how strongly I feel about

those perceptions, no matter how much passion is behind them, it

will not lead to true worship either.

It needs to be informed by the truth, and it must impact the

deepest part of who I am. That's true worship.

Let me say it one more time. True worship is a heartfelt

response to the truth of who God is, one that continually

recognizes with absolute delight that God is supremely better,

more glorious, more satisfying than anything else.

And once that conviction is settled in your heart, the Lord

in His grace gives us guidance of how we can then express that

worship in a way that further glorifies Him.

So if I bend down, if I serve, if I sing, if I do anything but

my heart is not impacted or impressed or is convinced or

settled that He is indeed supreme over all things.

It's vain worship. Do you see?

This is what Christ is truly after.

And I want to bring this up to you because what we find in the

text that we read in the opening of this message, I trust, is a

wonderful example of how we can now then offer worship to God

once it is chained around your heart and you're convinced He is

above all things. We now receive instruction even

in the passage that we just read, how then we can worship

Him. Here's the message today I want

to present to you three ways that we can worship the Lamb who

is Jesus. Three ways, because we have an

example laid out by us and for us with the worshippers who are

in heaven. So let's come back to our text

in Revelation 5, and the main focus will be verse eight.

Look at it again. And when he had taken the

scroll, that being Jesus, the four living creatures and the 24

elders fell down before the Lamb highlight that they first fell

down. Following that, we're told that

each was holding a what a harp. I wonder what that means?

And finally, golden bowls full of incense, which are the

prayers of the Saints right there.

You know what I see three ways I can worship Jesus after I

determined He is my All in all in here.

More importantly, I can express it in these ways.

In fact, I must express them in these ways.

Three ways #1 the way that I am called to worship Jesus Christ

is with my body, with my body. That's symbolized here by the

fact that these elders with the four living creatures fell down

before the Lamb. You know what's so interesting?

The four living creatures and these elders who fall down

demonstrate something that you find most commonly in the Book

of Revelation and the Gospels. In other words, for creatures

and for humans to fall down before Jesus appears the most in

the four Gospels and the final text of Holy Scripture.

Why do you think that is? Why do you think that the most

frequent records of this response to Jesus is in those

two places? Because Christ is most visible.

His presence is most real in the Gospels as He took on flesh, and

here as we find Him in heaven in glory.

His purity and His power demands such a response.

The weightiness of His glory even in His humanity called for

people to helplessly fall down before Him.

But that bodily response is not emphasized in the Epistles.

There is a different thing that is stress concerning our worship

with our bodies, and this is something that is familiar to

you. The priority that is placed on

these physical frames and how they should respond to the glory

of who Jesus is, is in practical holiness.

Practical holiness. Not to say that I can't express

my worship by bending down or even laying on my face, but

that's not the mandatory posture in the letters to the churches.

You know what it is your body in holiness.

Paul tells us in First Corinthians 624, You were bought

at a price. So glorify God in your body, in

my body. And the Bible can't be any more

clear than that. When Christ redeemed you and he

paid a price for you, what's included in that ransom is your

body. Every part of it belongs to Him.

He owns your body, not just your soul, not just your spirit, your

body. I'm sure you're like me and

wondering, I've never doubted that.

But what does it look like for my body to worship Him?

What does that look like? And I believe it means two

things. It includes what you do with

this body and what you don't do. 2 main categories that you find

throughout the Bible. How I glorify and worship God

with this body is what I do with it and what I don't do.

It's positive and it is negative.

It advances and then it refrains.

There's offense and there's defense.

There's go and there's no. And let me give you an example

of that dual emphasis in the New Testament.

Let's go to the book of James. Let's go to chapter 1 and let's

look at one verse, James 127. James says in chapter 1, verse

27, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father

is this to visit orphans and widows and their affliction and

to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Do you see the positive and the negative?

You see the offense and the defense.

You see the go and the no. So here's what this means.

We're after this right? Pure religion, pure worship,

glorifying God in a pure way. According to James, whenever I

sacrifice my time, my energy, my focus, waking up early, for

example, earlier than usual, traveling longer than I prefer,

attending to somebody else's needs, even at the expense of my

own, every time I do that in the name of Christ, in service to

others, that's worship. That's worship.

An example that James gives us is this.

Picking up your feet, choosing rather to go outside instead of

lounging at home, maybe even putting in your hands a plate of

food or some take out that you buy with your hard earned money

so that you can spend the evening visiting a lonely widow

or an overlooked orphan. When you do that, my brother and

my sister, according to James, you're worshipping.

But this is not the only thing. It's not just in what we do.

And again, this is just one example of many ways that we can

worship by what we do. It's also in what we reject and

to keep oneself unstained from the world.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen it this way, but every time you

and I deny the temptation to indulge the flesh or to conform

to the patterns of the world, that also to God is worship.

So when I'm with a group of people and a name comes up and

that person is not in that circle and there begins to be

backbiting and the tearing of that person's reputation.

And here I am now, because it's a consensus.

Everybody's saying the same thing and sharing the goods.

And I feel that urge to to say something or make a comment or

contribute my own silly observation about a person's

person's way of life that that really may not even be true to

begin with. But I choose to instead reject

it and keep my mouth shut, or even more than that, speak up to

their defense. That's worship.

That's worship. Or when I have been tired after

a long days of work and my mind now is being pulled by the ropes

of lust to imagine things and fantasize things that I

shouldn't be fantasizing about. And I begin to now come up with

a personal appointment with my screen to visit websites that I

shouldn't be visiting. And instead I canceled that

appointment. That's worship.

That's worship. Or here I am now on a Saturday

evening, no plans. There was no clean up day at

church, no basketball event, no volleyball, no BBQ, no nothing.

My phone is quiet. But hey, I get a text from some

friends, family friends actually, but they don't know

Christ. And they say, what are you doing

tonight? Let's go to this place.

And you just read the name and you Google the maps and you see

it. OK?

This is not a place that's going to help my testimony.

If anybody finds me there, that's going to be trouble.

And surely there's going to be opportunity to sin there more

than if I stay home. And So what you do instead,

though you're bored out of your mind, you kindly decline.

And more than that, you say you listen.

Since you reached out to me, what are you doing?

Tomorrow, let's go to church together.

That's worship. That's worship.

And here's what that means for you and I.

That true worship toward Jesus Christ is totally achievable by

any of us. Common acts, small sacrifices,

private appointments, visitations.

A simple call to encourage a weary soul.

Things that you don't think are really impactful or monumental,

like denying thoughts and denying actions and refraining

yourself from evil, wicked company.

All of that is worship and it's achievable.

Can you imagine? So we fall down, yes, not

physically, but even, as we heard last week, internally.

I surrender my body by what I do and by what I don't do.

That's a fragrance to Jesus. But we move on.

We come back to Revelation 5A and what do we see?

That they didn't just fall down before the Lamb.

They were each holding a harp. Now there is no need to over

spiritualize. There is no need to allegorize

this detail. Remember, context is king.

Context will keep you safe. Every time you see the word harp

mentioned in the Book of Revelation, every single time

it's accompanied by singing. It's here in Revelation 58.

You find in Revelation 14 two, Revelation 15 two, Whenever a

harp appears, right after, there's going to be some

singing. So what do we find here?

It's so obvious that Christ is worshipped in our praise.

Christ is worshipped in our heartfelt singing.

Not just our bodily sacrifice, but what we do with our lips.

And here's the part that moved me the most about this detail.

How many of them held harps? Each of them, every single one

in attendance had a harp. And I don't think it means that

every single one of them were musically gifted.

This is symbolic. What it does mean is that every

single one we're called to praise.

It wasn't optional. Praise is not optional.

We're all called to it. But my person, I know your

personality. It's OK, I'll tell you.

The Spirit will help you because Christ is worshipped when you

praise. Now here's so something so

significant. We can spend a great time

exploring this, but I want to offer one reason, just one

simple reason why praise is a glorifying form of worship.

What is it about praise that Christ wants for us?

To me we sang it. Praise the Lord.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

You find it throughout the Bible.

But why does he want it? Because it publicly acknowledges

God. This is just one reason.

There are many reasons why we praise, but let me give you one.

It publicly acknowledges God as the source of all good with

passion and joy. It's a testimony.

You are testifying. And we went to James, right?

Let's go to James again. Look at James 5, James 5, verse

James 5:13

13. James, as he's wrapping up his

epistle, gives some final exhortations to different

members of the churches who might have different heart

conditions, and he gives words of wisdom by the Spirit.

Notice what he says in this one verse.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Two questions I have. Why does James exhort Christians

who are suffering to pray? Because there's a tempting

alternative. When we're suffering, what is it

to complain, to murmur, to maybe even contemplate vengeance?

Depending on the source of your pain, it's easily possible for

those who are enduring any kind of affliction to preoccupy their

efforts and their energy. Their knee jerk reaction is to

spew out all their problems to another or even to themselves.

And genius saying no, no, reserve that energy and go

before God. Pour that out before the Lord.

OK, that's settled. Why does he tell those who are

cheerful? Now, what does he mean by

cheerful? The context suggests those who

are not weighed down by discouragement, those who are

not trying to fight off anxiety, those who are essentially happy,

those that you would ask, how are things going in your life?

Wonderful. I mean, no matter what sphere,

look at it, everything seems to be going smooth there.

There's so much ease. It's, it's wonderful, it's

great. Those kind of Christians, why

does he tell them to sing praise?

You know why? Because in the same way that

those who are suffering will forget God in prayer, those who

are cheerful tend to forget God in their happiness.

And so you need to praise when you're cheerful.

What does that mean? Here's what it means.

Praise repositions us every single time.

Praise has the ability, because it's designed by God, to give

Him the ultimate credit for whatever good that you are

enjoying in that season. Praise points your heart toward

heaven. Now one might say this, and I

can see why somebody might ask or wonder, well, can I just give

God glory and thanks in plain speech?

Thank you, Lord, for all the good that I am enjoying.

I recognize that you are the one who authored all of this.

Can I just do that? You can't do that.

But there's something unique about praise.

It weaves melody, it weaves rhythm into your words, and it

has a way of reorienting your emotions so that they are now

targeting the Lord and giving it towards God.

It brings the cheerfulness to its rightful place.

That's what praise has the ability to do, more than just

simple words. It caused you to tap into

something deeper in the human heart, the human experience, and

it associates the joy and the delight with beauty, melody and

rhythm and says, Oh Lord, you are the one.

All these good feelings that I'm feeling, it sanctifies your

emotions. All the things that you're

knowing here, all the things that make your step lighter, all

the things that make your day easier.

What praise does, it gathers all that up and says this is because

of God, this is because of him. Praise contains the power to

take all the cheerfulness that you are knowing and to lay it at

the foot of God's throne and saying this is because of you.

Now, we would make a great mistake if we think that James

is teaching that we can only offer praise when you're in a

good mood. Anyone cheerful, sing praise.

If you're not cheerful, well, you don't have to sing.

You think that's what James really saying?

Absolutely not. Scripture would tell us

otherwise. All he's doing here is simply

addressing those who might miss the opportunity to worship God,

especially when all is well. So those who may be in a

cheerful state and not know, how do I give glory to God in this

way? James says.

Sing praise, be intentional, come ready to offer that

sacrifice, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

And perhaps you're somebody who's convinced that praise

isn't really all that important, or again, like I said earlier,

doesn't really fit your personality well.

If you're serious about worshipping God, I trust, and I

charge you actually, to ask God to see the wisdom, the beauty,

and the honor that comes from giving him praise.

Each one of these creatures and elders held harps in their

hands. One more thing, we worship God

with our bodies. We worship God with our praise.

Lastly, we worship God with our prayers.

Not only were there harps, but lastly in verse 8 and golden

bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the Saints.

This part minister to me deeply. Do you know why?

Because if you've ever doubted that your prayers are

significant. If you've ever feared that your

prayers go unheard, look where they find themselves.

Look what happens with your prayers.

Be set free from those lies. God collects every supplication,

every intercession, every utterance of Thanksgiving, and

places them in golden bowls. Where?

In the backroom? No, near His throne.

It's a perfume to him. It's an aroma to him.

What is your prayers? Now, here's what's amazing.

He doesn't say the prayers of world leaders.

He doesn't say the prayers of influential thinkers.

He doesn't even limit it to prayers of those ministers who

shaped and redirected nations. What does it say in verse 8?

The prayers of the Saints. That includes the weakest of the

Saints, the feeblest of the Saints, dare I say even the

inconsistent St. All the Saints who had enough

faith to believe that God hears them when they cry out them.

God bottles up those prayers and he blends them in these golden

bowls and he keeps them there with high honor.

And that's really the take away from this.

No matter what you think about prayer, if you think it's

important or not, whatever your deep understanding of it is in

Scripture, here's one thing that you can leave with.

God honors our prayers. God is pleased with our prayers.

It brings the light to Him. Or else why use this kind of

imagery? Now, if prayer is an act of

worship, how does that work? If this scene again demonstrates

robust worship, how does prayer fit into that?

And I want to present you at least two ways.

First, prayer has been given by God to make communion with God

possible. It's only through prayer.

I said this so many times before.

When you look at the Tabernacle with all the different

furnishings in it, the closest article to the glory of God

behind that veil is the altar of incense.

There's so many things that means, but one practical point

is this. The closest that you can get to

God is in prayer, and prayer has been given by God to make

communion with him. Though yes, on this side of

eternity it's invisible, it's still very much real.

Prayer says, Lord, my heart yearns for fellowship with you.

And if you've given me prayer as the doorway to know the closest

communion with you, then I will designate time.

I will get away from all distractions and I will sit at

your feet and I will open my heart in my mouth and pray,

believing and showing you that I want to be with you more than

anything else. So prayer is worship in that it

demonstrates to God that you truly want to know Him, not just

theologically but experientially, not just with

head knowledge and head pursuit, but heart knowledge and heart

pursuit prayer. But secondly, the way prayer

becomes worship is that it invites God to intervene in such

a way that the testimony it would produce would grant him

greater glory. Prayer is the invitation of

God's intervention into my situation.

That's what prayer is, and that's what we find here with

these prayers that are symbolized as incense.

It's not the last time it shows up in Revelation.

Go to Revelation 8. Notice where they reappear in

Revelation 8, verse 3 and verse 5.

Revelation 8:3

What to verse 5? Notice what John describes.

And another Angel came and stood at the altar with a golden

censor, and he was given much incense to offer with the

prayers of all the Saints on the golden altar before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the Saints

rose before God from the hand of the Angel.

Then the Angel took the sensor and filled it with fire from the

altar and threw it on the earth. And there were peels of Thunder,

rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

So much can be said about this. We're approaching Revelation 8.

I'll keep the extra Jesus for that someday.

Here's the main take away. The prayers of God's people that

were stored in heaven don't stay there.

God gathers them and he returns them to the earth fulfilled.

That's what happens to your prayers and mine.

As beautiful as it is to imagine that my prayers go up to heaven

and God gathers them and collects them into golden bowls

of incense as a sweet smelling aroma, the principle is here

that he can't take those prayers and launch them right back into

the world in a way where when you witness the answer, you go,

this is God. This isn't coincidence and

nobody can argue. Prayers are designed to come

back into the world and make such a mark that God would

receive glory from it. Do you remember what Paul told

the Corinthians when he beckoned them to pray for him and his

ministry team? Let me remind you, in 2nd

Corinthians 111, you also must help us by prayer so that many

will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us

through the prayers of many. Oh, Church of Corinth, pray.

And I said this before too. The Corinthians, were they like

the most exemplary of Christians?

You thought whatever church you were a part of had issues.

This church had problems and yet Paul the apostle says, would you

guys pray for me? Why would he say that unless he

believed that God would even hear their prayers?

Pray. Why?

What's what's Paul's heart? Yeah, I want to be delivered

from this, but pray so that many will give thanks on our behalf

as a result of the prayers of many.

I want God to be glorified and answered.

Prayer. That's how it becomes worship.

It becomes worship when I commune with him and God says,

like Paul, behold, he is praying.

And it also becomes worship because it's an invitation for

God to crash into the world and for people to say there is a

living God and he answers prayer.

Let me give you a final thought before we conclude here.

As precious as individual prayers are to God, as personal

communion is a calling for each of us, the Bible doesn't say in

Revelation 5A that those bowls had the prayers of the Saint or

a St. the Saints, plural. There's something especially

special when we give our prayers to God as a church, when we

combine our voices together and cry out to the Lord that to him

is a sweet aroma with all our backgrounds and all their

different testimony. And this is just real.

All their different ages, right? All their different history with

God. When we when we come

collectively and designate time to now unify our voice and bring

it before him, I see something here that's especially special

to God. So how do we worship God as a

church? Not just on Sunday for an hour

and a half, two hours. You can come on Wednesday too.

And that also becomes worship to him.

With one voice, we glorify the Lord.

The prayers of the Saints. Yes, this means the prayers of

the Saints throughout history, but also I'm sure, means the

prayers of God's people when we come and combine our voices

together. Why do we worship?

You just heard three ways of how we can worship, but is there any

indication of why? What should stimulate me to

worship with my body, to worship in my praise, to worship in my

prayers? Revelation 59 and 10, they sang

a new song saying where they are you to take the scroll to open

its seals. For you are slain, and by your

blood you ransom people for God from every tribe and language

and people and nation, and you've made them a Kingdom and

priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

Why? Why?

Why? Because he died because he shed

his blood. Why should I give up my body, my

rights, my impulses? Why should I consecrate that to

the Lord? Both.

Both positively negative. Because He bought your body.

Why should I praise? How can I praise when my faith

is clouded by unbelief? When I'm trying to weather this

tornado of turbulence and trials?

Well, let me give you one reason to praise.

He died for you. He forgave every wicked thing

that you've ever done. Well, why should I pray?

How can I pray? What can motivate me to actually

make time for that? Well, do you realize the high

price that he paid to make communion possible?

That God, because of His Son, makes your heart his new home.

And now no matter where you are, you can pause and you can give

intentionality to your communication with Christ and He

hears you as though he was face to face.

Why not pray when he shed his blood to ransom people for God

and he did. It doesn't discriminate.

Every tribe, every language, people and nation.

No matter where you're from or what you've done, He's purchased

you. Surely he deserves my body, my

praise, my prayers. I don't know if you caught this,

but in closing here, there is actually an order of worship

that's laid out. Did you notice it?

There's actually a pattern of concentric circles of worship

described in this chapter. Look at it again with me in

verse 8. And when he had taken the

scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell

down before the Lamb. Pause.

Who? Who are we seeing falling down

before the Lamb, the four living creatures, and the 24 elders?

But it doesn't stop there. You come down to verse 11.

What do you find? John says.

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living

creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering

myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

Now we go from the elders, the creatures, to innumerable angels

who are now joining them in worship.

Does it end there? It doesn't.

Verse 13. And I heard every creature in

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

all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne into

the Lamb. Pause.

Show me in the Bible where Jesus is worshipped.

Right here. Jesus is an exalted, created

being. Millions believe that.

Oh really? So why isn't He on the side of

creation, worshipping God? Why is He on the side of the

throne being worshipped by every creature?

Remember that? Remember that to Him who sits on

the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and

might, forever and ever. Jesus Christ is being worshipped

by who now? Absolutely every living thing

that has breath. What's the point of this

observation? Well, the obvious 1 is that He

is worthy of such worship and he will receive all honor.

Here's the practical inspiration.

What happens with worship in the scene?

Is it growing or is it diminishing?

It's growing. Is it for you?

Is worship with my body growing? Is it becoming stronger?

Is it becoming weaker? Is my praise becoming more

authentic or more artificial? Is my prayer life deepening or

am I drifting further from intimacy with God as it is

growing here? Apply it to your life, my dear

brother and sister, and ask yourself this.

Is worship growing or is it weakening?

Is it permeating more and more of my life for other things

being worshipped more and more instead of Christ?

The instruction here has made it grow.

May it take over every part of who you are.

You know one of the most fascinating things about the

Christian life among the hundreds of things that we can

talk about. Can I leave you with one?

God says your body is a temple. Your body is a temple.

What happened? The temple worship.

When do you ever escape your body?

You don't until you die. You know what that means?

If my body is a temple, then I'm called to give worship all the

time. How well you heard it.

I hope by what I do, but I don't do with opportunities to praise,

especially when I'm cheerful. I'm not going to forget God as

the source of my gladness and my prayers.

Oh Lord, if you treasure my prayers in this way, then let me

offer it up to you. I want to express that I love

you and I adore you. I want to fellowship with you

and Lord, here's this problem, here's this need, here's the

situation. There's a way.

We're child, there's my church. I'm going to pray and ask that

you come through so that when you do, you're glorified and you

are worshiped. May we worship.

Lord, We thank you for the service.

We thank you that the Father is seeking after such worshippers,

and Lord, we praise you that in this church there are many who

worship in spirit and truth. May it be a growing reality in

each of our lives. Help us worship You, Lord.

Help us imitate this site that we just witnessed in heaven.

We love you with all of our hearts, and Lord, before any

external act, we want it to be more true in our hearts.

Inspire it within the Lord so that it would be real when

people see and hear it. And when you see and hear it,

more importantly, we give you thanks and we worship you in

Jesus name, Amen. Let's stand and let's fulfill #2

Let's praise him. Let's praise him.