Beyond The Veil

Well, today we want to talk about worship.

And, you know, talking about worship is a huge thing.

It's a big topic.

And really, as I was in prayer about this morning, I was reminded of one of the many words Pastor Robert shared last weekend, where he spoke about how we need to go to a higher place, a place of our strength, and that it's through holiness and worship that we are going to see things move forward.

We're going to see the battle won, right?

And of course, that had to do with him going up on the mountain, holding up the staff of God, Aaron and her at his right and his left, interceding as Joshua was on the battlefield.

Because we do have a battle to fight, and we fight it through praise and worship.

Amen.

You don't come in to sing songs.

You come in to engage with God, to worship, to honor, to adore, to give him the praise and the honor.

But things happen in worship that cause heaven and earth to move.

Because it causes God to draw near and it causes darkness to withdraw.

When the strength and the life of God comes on us, when we give ourselves to him in worship, then we can't help but advance the cause of the kingdom of God.

And you know, as I thought about worship, I just want you to remember that we worship first and foremost, not because of all of the secondary benefits we get out of worship.

Can you say amen?

It's very tricky, it's very easy as a Christian to begin to pray, to worship, to seek God because of just what we can get out of that experience.

What we can gain in our own lives through prayer.

How many of you know prayer changes things?

How many of you know worship changes things?

But we we must be careful that we don't make it about this is some mechanism that we use.

Like we're manipulating God in the spiritual realm as if that was possible, to get what we want, to accomplish things, and we keep God at the center because when we yield to God, when we draw near to Him, then He will begin to look after and put in order everything else.

You know, and a big part of my message today, if we get there, does have to do with the secondary benefits of worship, or you could call them the side effects of worship.

Right?

You ever take medication?

And those are usually not fun side effects to look at.

Sometimes it's just like if I'm gonna take the medication, it's just like I better just trust the doctor.

I'm not even gonna look at that stuff, or I'm gonna be too freaked out to even bother.

You know, it's like, oh, well, this is gonna take your pain away and your sleep and your digestive tract's gonna be wrecked, and you're, you know, like, oh, there's side effects that come with taking this medicine.

Well, thankfully, in God, our pursuit of God through prayer, through worship, through responding to Him only brings us good side effects.

Amen.

But to kind of keep things right where they need to be, let's turn to open our open the word today in Revelation chapter four.

Revelation chapter four, chapter five.

We're not talking about the end times.

Some of you are relieved and some of you are disappointed when I say that.

I have people ask me about the end times.

I'm like, are you loving Jesus?

Do you want to be with him forever?

Are you excited for his return?

That's what the end times is all about.

Right?

Well, anyway, I went over not so great.

Um here we are in Revelation chapter four.

I love Revelation because John gets a glimpse of heaven.

And yes, he begins to see things are gonna happen, how this prophetic timeline moves along.

But first and foremost, he gets to see what worship before the throne of God looks like.

And I mean, that is what it's all about.

So down into verse six, the latter part of that verse it says, All around the throne, on either side of the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.

And the first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third was with the face of a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight, and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings and full of eyes, all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.

Those creatures, those beings that most clearly see God have not grown tired of honoring and blessing and worshiping him.

I love that verse.

We know this holy, holy, holy Isaiah.

This is the same thing he sees in chapter six of his prophecies.

We see he has a revelation of heaven, and again, that there are these heavenly beings around the throne of God, and they are still crying out, that's what, for I don't remember, six hundred years before Christ, something like that.

And now we're hundreds of years later, and the creatures are still crying out: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

He is a mighty God, Almighty.

There is nothing too hard for our God, amen.

Who was, who is, and who is to come.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He is that he is, and that's enough to keep the heavenly host worshiping day and night, night and day for all eternity.

And we get tired of the chorus third time around, right?

It's like, I don't like that church, I don't like that worship team.

They repeat the words so much, they say the same things over and over and over again.

Well, you're gonna have a hard time with heavenly realities if something as small as repetition is gonna drive you nuts.

Because for me, and I've said this before, church, for me, it's not like an empty repetition that Jesus warns us about, right?

Jesus says, don't, you know, just fill your prayers with empty repetitions like the pagans do, right?

This is not empty repetition.

Not all repetition is vain.

Not all repetition is useless, religious, empty, just we're here to keep this going.

No, it's repetition because every time I look at it this way, it's like I see God and I'm like holy, and then I draw a little nearer, and that experience of his holiness is more intense.

It's greater.

So all I can do is say, oh, you're holy, but with a new whole depth and dimension, and we stumble forward, and it's like, oh God, I I realize again that that degree I'm drawing nearer.

You're holier now than I've ever seen you before.

We don't lose who God is in the empty repetition, but we gain through drawing near.

And sometimes it's actually good for us, church, to be really simple about our words.

And we could probably all think of a song or two that have way too many words.

I'm not criticizing the band this morning, okay?

But you know what I mean.

There's so many words, it's like you're just trying to keep up to what's going on.

Sometimes we just need to bring it back to the simplest you are that you are, that you are, that you are, and God, if you were there yesterday, you're here today, and I don't have to fear tomorrow because you're still there, you're still the same.

Lord, you are so holy and righteous and good and powerful.

And we continue along in this worship service.

This is this is what the living creatures respond, or we call them cherubim.

And in verse 9, it says, And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

So every time, you know, it's it's one thing to think these are angels, these are supernatural beings.

Of course, they can keep this going.

But here, there's a there's a response through from the redeemed who are in God's presence.

Heaven and earth coming together, right?

Humanity with a heavenly host joining together.

They have a response.

And that's something we need to realize, church, when we come in here, heaven is already worshiping.

Heaven has not ceased to worship, to honor, to glorify God.

We're just stepping in, opening our eyes again.

That's right.

And I am now part of this heavenly service, this worship experience.

We're tearing the veil away.

Amen.

And we're entering in.

The 24 elders bow down before him, him who is seated on the throne, and they worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne.

Such a beautiful image.

Lots of songs about this, right?

Whatever we have that we value, whatever we have that would signal that we have something to boast of, that we have gained something through life, or even something that God has honored us with.

Everything that we have received, we freely give in worship.

There is nothing that is too precious, that is too mine, that is too, you know, outside of my worship that I can't give it freely back to the Lord.

We hold on to things in this life as too precious to give to God.

Too precious our time, too precious, our money, too precious, our whatever.

But if we one day stand before God's throne, which I hope and believe that everyone in this room would know Jesus and would one day stand before his throne, the first thing you're wanna wanna do is throw it all before him.

They cast their crowns before the throne.

This is the response of the redeemed of the church, of people who have entered into God's presence.

Worthy are you, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

God is worthy of our praise.

God is worthy of our praise.

God is worthy on my best day of my praise.

God is worthy on my worst day of my praise.

God is worthy when the sun is shining and my bills are paid and my family's in health.

He is worthy to be praised.

God is worthy to be praised when I'm sick and I have no strength left and I get bad news.

God is worthy when my loved ones die and I can't do anything about it.

He is worthy of all praise and honor and glory.

God is worthy.

He is worthy, he is worthy.

You are worthy, Lord, this morning of all praise, all honor, all glory, all riches and wealth and wisdom.

We give it to you.

We give it to you, Lord God.

We give it to you today.

You need church to build a preset into your life that when things get confusing, when you don't know what else to do, your response is worship.

Your response is worship.

Because the enemy will throw things at your life to get you out of sync, out of, you know, it's like you're knocked on the head.

What's going on?

I can't see straight.

I don't know where I'm going.

If you're getting a knock on the head, fall to your knees and give him praise and honor.

Come on.

I was thinking about this on the way in, and you know, it's a it's a hard thing.

And even, you know, years later, it's it's a difficult thing to think back on.

And most of you know this story, but I'm just gonna share it because I was remembering it.

And that's when in two weeks we lost my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law.

Right?

Most of you know the story.

They both got COVID, they both had pre-existing health conditions.

My mother-in-law was gone in 12 hours, and my brother-in-law went into the hospital, same time, never knew his mother had passed, and two weeks later, he passed.

A pastor, thriving, beautiful church, 18-year-old church, young family, and we got that news, and of course, everybody had been praying.

We didn't know what was going on.

You know, this is not what we hoped, what we expected, but sometimes when you don't get what you hope and expect, that is the time that you prove the veracity of your worship.

Because God is looking around the earth for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

And you know, there's an element of that truth, as in we truly know who God is, and you know, we worship him in the right way, and we worship him by the spirit, but it's also that come hell or high water, nothing is going to steal my praise from God.

And I remember we were in the midst of all of that, and we're we're grieving, of course, and we're packing our bags to go and comfort the family down in El Salvador, and it's just like, you know, you're just it's all a blur.

And out of basically nowhere, we get a phone call from dear friends that had fought a long battle to finally conceive a child, and they call us and say, We lost the baby.

We're downstairs packing our bags to go and comfort our family.

We're grieving, and people that we had just rejoiced, you know, this baby's finally coming into the world, and this thing that we've been fighting alongside you for, it's happening, and another blow comes like that.

And you know, we get the call, and I just said, if you guys are okay, I I don't have any words at this point.

I got nothing inside of me to encourage you with.

I'm empty, I'm sad, I'm broken, I'm grieving, but if you're okay, just stay on the line.

We're gonna put the speakerphone on.

And I I picked up the guitar and I began to sing.

Sometimes you just have to worship your way through whatever comes.

You have to worship your way into the presence of God when everything is falling apart.

And and I don't know how I got there from a throne room revelation here from John, right?

But church is there such a value, a premium on our worship that we default, we go there when everything in life is trying to tell you just give up, just forget, just have a pity party, just you know, feel sorry for yourself for a while.

Have you ever noticed that stopping to feel sorry for yourself doesn't actually have an end?

Have you ever noticed that feeding the woe is me, feel sorry for myself, life sucks, this hurts, why me?

Never actually gets you anywhere.

It just gets you more sad, more depressed, more heavy, more dark, more doubt, more unbelief, more out of all of the things that could bring life.

And sometimes, again, I wasn't worshiping God in that moment because I was happy.

I wasn't worshiping God because I even particularly felt like I had something to thank him for.

Mind you, when you start to get into the presence of God, all of a sudden, you start to have a response of gratitude and you start to say, God, I thank you for the life of my loved ones, and Lord, for the time that we had together.

Lord, I thank you that though we're seeing this right now, this is not the end, and we have a hope and a future, and you have good thoughts towards us.

And Lord God, you're bigger than my circumstance, you're bigger than death.

You overcame death in the grave.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Worthy are you, our God, our Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.

You made it all, and they exist because you made them.

We go forward just a little bit into chapter five, and it says, Worthy are you, down into verse nine, a new song.

I like that.

I guess they even have new songs in heaven, okay?

I know I kind of drove home the point before, excuse me, the point before that we shouldn't get tired, right?

But they even throw a new chorus in every now and again in heaven.

And some of you are like, Thank you, Jesus.

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.

This is speaking of the Lamb of God.

Worthy are you to take the scroll to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God.

From every tribe, for you were slain 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.

Again, he is worthy, and I love this picture that they're worshiping Jesus, the Lamb of God, because he has shed his blood for us, and because he has shed his blood for us, he is worthy to open this scroll.

But it's a beautiful thing because as they're caught up in this heavenly worship, you are worthy.

It's your blood, it's the price you paid, and he begins to open up this revelation.

You notice that in that revelation, the people of God are written in.

That's a little bit different.

In other words, when we begin to give worth and honor and glory unto Jesus, and we begin to recognize all that he has accomplished for us through his death, through his resurrection, through his blood, through his scars, then I believe and I see all through scripture that as we truly enter his presence, revelation for what it means to be the people of God, what our purpose is, what our identity is begins to be unveiled as well.

If you struggle to know what your purpose in life is, what your identity is, get into worship, get into the presence of God, give him the worth, the honor, the glory.

Exalt him for the sacrifice that he made on the cross.

Cross is here now.

Exalt him and he'll be begin to unfold, to unveil things.

He's called people, he's ransomed a people of every tribe and language and a nation.

You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.

Isn't that an amazing thing?

Sometimes we talk about the kingdom of God like something like it's something outside of us.

And don't get me wrong, the kingdom of God is moving and doing things.

But the kingdom of God, Jesus says at one point, he says the kingdom of God is within you.

It says he has made them a kingdom.

Come on, you're only going to discover your kingdom purpose, your kingdom identity through worship.

You're only going to understand these things when it's revealed in the presence of God.

And again, just a couple other quick verses here in chapter 5, down in verse 12.

Worthy is the Lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

But if we really saw Jesus for who he is, we would be like, I wish I had more to give you, Jesus.

I wish, I, I, Lord, if I truly could comprehend what you're doing on the earth through the sacrifice of the cross, through the preaching of the gospel, through your spirit, I would, oh God, I just wish that I could give you more.

Glory, honor, blessing.

And again in verse 13, 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 worshiped.

If you want a picture of worship, all the symbolisms aside, you know, you don't have to go through the Old Testament and what does this sacrifice mean and the incense mean and everything else?

That's worship right there.

We just pulled the veil back.

We're looking at worship because our worship is supposed to reflect what is going on in heaven.

Here's a verse that'll perhaps blow you away, has blown me away a couple of times as I look at it.

So let's just flip to Hebrews chapter 12 for a moment.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Not to the usual verse we would go to about running the race.

You heard enough about that last week, I think.

Good messages.

What we see here.

Chapter twelve, verse eighteen.

I love this because again, it's easy to read something like Revelation, and it's beautiful, it's inspiring, and we're like, well, that's the one day in the sweet by and by, you know, when I fly away, however you want, you know, and sing the song.

That's I'll I'll see it, I'll understand it, I'll experience it.

But look at this.

One of the things that I love about our faith is that through Jesus and by his spirit, we get to live in heavenly realities now.

We don't have to wait for eternity to begin to step beyond the veil.

Actually, earlier in the book of Hebrews, that was a big deal.

It says, now we have confidence to enter boldly beyond the veil before the throne of grace.

If we understood what that meant, church, like this place, uh, like we should be stepping beyond the veil.

Like we should put it in our minds somehow.

I don't know, like, Lord, as I step into this building, I am entering into the throne of grace.

I am leaving behind worldly concerns, and I am entering into your immediate presence.

God, let's experience this together.

Come on.

We want to have an ear to what heaven is saying and doing.

Again, just read Revelation.

We need to be sensitive.

And we try to do that through our worship here.

It's great to sing, you know, exciting, energetic songs.

And you guys know I love the dancing and I love all of that, you know, exuberant worship, but there are times that the Spirit of God comes in and just begins to hush us down because there's a gravity, there's a weight, there's a heaviness to his glory that demands our attention in such a way that we must just stop.

And we need to learn to cultivate that sensitivity, church.

Look what it says here in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 18.

Hebrews 12:18

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and a and darkness and gloom and a tempest.

He's referring back to Sinai.

That there are some people that are going backwards towards the old covenant.

We need to continue to go forward with a better covenant, with better promises, with a better priesthood.

You know, we are in a better place because Jesus has made a way.

Why did that veil, why is that veil torn?

Why can we go freely into the throne of grace?

Because the veil that was torn was his flesh being rent, being broken for us.

This is the blood of the new covenant.

Verse 19, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message may be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given, that even a beast, if it touches the mountain, it must be stoned.

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.

That's the old covenant.

Fear, boundaries, limitations.

Moses put put stone markers around the base of the mountain, lest anyone go up into my presence and they die.

Do we understand how big of a deal it is that we can walk beyond all of those barriers into the presence of God?

Because God broke down all the barriers by taking on flesh, by walking amongst us.

And John says, and we saw his glory like the glory of the only begotten Son of God.

And look at what it says here in verse 22 but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God.

This is all present tense, people.

Like for the writer of Hebrews, this isn't one day when you die and the angels carry you away, you will go up to the heavenly Jerusalem.

He's saying, guys, we can go there now.

We can enter into that reality now.

Now, some of you are like, that sounds exciting and amazing.

What are you even talking about?

I don't know what it will look like necessarily for you, but I need your faith to extend towards something that is higher than singing nice songs and feeling goosebumps.

I need you to extend your spiritual sight beyond just having nice church towards spiritual realities where we can enter into the presence of God.

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.

We don't worship alone, church.

We don't worship alone.

We are not a bunch of people held down by gravity, held down by the weight of this world, trying to extend ourselves towards heaven.

What is this like?

It's like the two halves of the one reality: the natural, the physical, and the spiritual come together.

They are interlocked, they are overlaid.

That when we are entering into God's worship, it's not like we get, you know, a projected version of heaven on the screen to encourage us to keep engaged.

Heaven shows up and worships alongside us.

I've been in services where God has moved, the Spirit has moved, where we have sought Him in ways where we're we're we're playing our instruments.

Prophesying through worship, prophesying through music.

You know, and these things happen, and people have had open visions of angels around them.

This is real.

This is real.

We have come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Heavenly worship.

Do we realize, church, what we are engaged in when we walk into this room?

As I said, that should increase our faith for what God can do, for how he can move.

And it should also increase our reverence and awe.

Because we're not standing in a car just a nice carpeted building out on the prairie of Saskatchewan.

We're standing on holy ground.

We're standing where God has made himself known, present.

He is drawn near.

The Bible is not speaking in metaphors when it says, if you draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

God, the creator, the one who always was and is, the Almighty, the one through whom all things were made, draws near to you when you pray, when you worship, when you lift your hands, when you lift your voice, when you come with a heart expectant, faith-filled.

God.

God.

God.

Not some spiritual, fuzzy, warm feeling.

God! God! And you know, we don't even have time today to talk about all those things that I had mentioned before.

That, you know, I want us to keep our sights on the central thing.

We worship because he is worthy.

We worship because we begin to get a clearer glimpse of who he is.

And this is the thing.

When you see somebody do something amazing, what's your natural reaction?

Have you ever surprised yourself how vocal and excited you can be when somebody does something truly amazing and remarkable in front of you?

Like you see them do some like crazy backflip, somersault, I don't know, something in sports, or you see somebody that gets, grabs a hold of microphone and they sing like heavens come into earth and reach, you know, noise sounds and melodies and volumes that you never thought a human voice could reach.

It's all you can do but clap and just be excited and you respond to that.

It's natural to worship.

When we see greatness, we worship.

When we see something done with excellence, we praise, we honor.

It's natural.

Our problem is we haven't seen God clearly enough.

Because if we saw God clearer, the worship would happen.

We wouldn't be able to stop ourselves from worshiping God.

If we had even, like I know we speak about this veil, but it's to me, it's almost like there are many veils.

You know, you think about those pictures where the mountains are off, and there's many mountains, the furthest ones away, they're like just a white, wispy, you know, outline.

And the closer they get, the closer they are, the the clearer, the darker, the more detail.

It's kind of like that.

We're we're moving forward, and those mists, those veils are being dissipated until we can see clearly.

I don't even know what that looks like today.

But I want God to visit us, church.

I want God to open our eyes again.

I want God, as we begin to draw near, to draw near to us, so that we can have a natural yet supernatural response to him in worship and praise that causes heaven and earth to explode with life.

Where life begins to break forth.

Come on, church.

Thank you, Lord.

Begin to pray, begin to seek his face in this place.

Begin to tell him how worthy he is.

Don't look to how you feel.

Don't look at what's happening in your life.

Look to him.

Jesus, you are worthy.

Jesus, oh God, may we have a revelation of your worth, of your honor, of your glory, of your goodness, of your power, Lord God.

Give us a revelation in this place today of who you are.

How beautiful, how majestic, how mighty, how good, Lord God.

In you there is only light.

There's not even the slightest shadow in turning, Lord God.

Darkness flees before your presence.

Enemies have to fall as you step in.

Lord God, we worship you in this place today.

God, restore a heart of worship to the church.

Lord God, forgive your church for seeking your benefits and not who you are.

Forgive us, Lord God, for just going through religious motion to mean satisfied with less than the living God who wants to come and touch our lives, who wants us to enter freely into his presence, oh God.

Oh, there is a way through your broken body and through your blood, Jesus.

Oh, I will, I will draw near, I will boldly go in.

Oh God, we break up whatever it is in people's lives that hold them back, that steal that boldness.

But Lord God, God has not given you a spirit of fear, of timidity, of cowardice, but he's giving you that spirit of love.

Draw them by your love.

Draw them by your goodness, oh God.

Draw us all deeper into your presence today.

Oh Jesus.

We love you, Lord.

We love you, Lord.

Come on, worship him today.

We worship you, oh God.

Hallelujah.

Blessing.

Blessing and all.

Jesus, unto your name.

Unto your name.

We give you glory.

Come on, say glory.

Holy elderly are worthy.

Worthy are you.

Come on.

Let's respond in worship.

Oh, as the angels cry out, holy, holy, holy! All the elders fell, and they respond, and worthy are you! Oh Lord, let that response from heaven to earth, from angel to man, Lord God, from our hearts to yours, let there be a response in your church that's deeper, deeper, deeper.