Good morning.
How are y'all doing today?
Good.
I'm doing good, thanks, yeah?
Good stuff.
All right, if you are joining us here
for the first time this morning here in our sanctuary,
or if you're joining us online for the first time,
we wanna say welcome.
We're so glad you're here to worship with us today
at Hosanna Christian Fellowship.
I am Pastor Nathan, and this morning,
we're gonna be continuing the Apostle John's experience
in the throne room of God,
and looking at what might be the first part
of a two-part study on what true worship is.
If you've been with us for the last few months,
you've been with us as we've gone through Revelation,
and when we got to chapter four,
starting in that chapter, our study shifted to heaven.
We've been literally in heaven from chapter four forward,
and there in chapter four in the beginning,
we saw John get caught up there into heaven
where he sees this wonderful vision of God on the throne.
He sees the 24 elders, he sees the four living creatures,
and then in chapter five,
him still in the throne room of God,
we opened up with Jesus,
claiming the title deed of earth as our kinsman redeemer,
as the one and only one who could possibly fulfill
the redemption clause of mankind and all of creation.
And so today, we're gonna see what is possibly
the largest worship service in history, all right?
It is huge.
The venue of this worship service, heaven itself,
and in attendance at this worship service is God,
some strange creatures, angels, the redeemed, it says,
and then later on in the chapter,
it says that the number of all of these,
the angels and the redeemed and the creatures,
is thousands upon thousands of thousands,
all singing praise to the lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
Now, worship is very, very important to God,
as we're gonna see later in this chapter.
It's incredibly important to him,
and even though what we're looking at this morning
is taking place in heaven,
worship is something we could do anywhere.
We could worship God any place.
It doesn't have to only be here Sunday morning.
It doesn't have to only be in a church.
We could worship God anywhere, any day.
Worship isn't something reserved for Sunday alone.
We can worship God at home.
We can worship God in our car.
We can worship God inside.
We can worship God outside.
Worship is a universal thing,
but it will have its ultimate fulfillment,
its ultimate expression when we get to heaven,
because when we get to heaven,
worship there will no longer be a long distance experience.
We will be face to face with God Almighty.
We will be singing directly into his eyes.
We will be smiling at him as we praise.
He will be right there with us,
and we will be present with the Lamb of God,
who will still then bear the marks of our redemption,
as we talked about last week,
and we will there be praising him forever.
So there's a lot of information here
at the end of Revelation chapter five.
There's actually three different songs of worship
that we're gonna be studying.
This week we're gonna look at the first song.
We'll be looking at verses eight through 10
of Revelation five, and the next time we're together,
we'll look at the second two songs in verses 11 through 14,
but the big overarching question
that these next two studies pose to us is simply this.
How important is worship to you?
As you contemplate that question,
one of the natural places your mind might wander to
is the next question.
Well, how important is worship to God?
How important is it to him?
Well, biblically, the answer to that question
is pretty simple.
If you're a student of the Bible,
you'll see that worship is a top priority to God,
and possibly the top priority,
because when we think of what God wants from us,
other things might naturally come to mind,
especially in line with our specific giftings and callings.
We might think, oh, evangelism's
the most important thing to God.
We might think outreach is the most important thing to God.
Some might go, no, discipleship is the most important thing
God wants from us in our relationship with them.
Others might say, no, it's teaching.
It's teaching the word.
That's obviously the top priority to God.
Now, all of those things for sure are incredibly important,
very important, vital to our faith walk as Christians,
but they're not on the top of the list
of what God wants from his people.
There at the top of the list is worship.
Because what happens here, here on earth,
here from me to you, the pulpit to the body here
as we gather together, what happens from each of you
to one another as the body ministers to one another,
and then what happens from us to the world
as we go out to share the gospel of Christ,
all of our outreach, all of our activity,
all of our outward activity stems from our upreach.
It stems from our worship,
our worship relationship with our God.
Because everything we are,
everything we do is God's children.
It's all a direct reflection of our worship of God.
Is he our everything?
Is he our focus?
Is he our priority?
Is he our reason for everything?
Do we worship truly?
What is that even?
What does that even mean?
Well, we're gonna attempt to answer some of these questions
this morning in Revelation five,
but first, we are gonna spend some time in worship
because God is worthy.
He is worthy of our worship, he is worthy of our praise,
and as we're gonna see today, we get as his people
the wonderful opportunity to respond to him
for what he has done in saving our souls, amen?
Let's pray.
Father, we love you.
God, we love you so much.
Lord, we quite literally are nothing without you.
Lord, without you, we are simply lost people,
controlled by our sin,
standing in the path of your judgment against sin.
But Lord, as believers, we've come to a place, God,
where we believed in you.
We believed in who you are and what you did for us, God.
We received that free gift of salvation
that you offered to us, Lord, and we were born again.
We were redeemed.
We were saved, we were set free
from the power and control of sin
to then, for the rest of this life,
live a life that glorifies you,
a life with true meaning and true purpose.
Lord, a life of true love
that we couldn't possibly do without you,
and then, on top of that, we have the hope of heaven
and an eternity just with you in perfection.
God, you are so worthy.
You are so worthy, and God, we wanna open this morning
in worshiping of you, Lord,
even in preparation of looking into your word
and learning what true worship is all about.
But God, we wanna glorify your name and praise you
because, God, you are everything.
You are our everything.
You are our reason for being,
and we love you and we thank you.
So God, be glorified this morning.
Fill us and move through us in your spirit, God,
that we would be people who respond to what you have done.
Thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, today we are in Revelation chapter five
looking at verses eight through 10,
so I just wanna read the verses for context.
It says, when he took the scroll,
the four living creatures and the 24 elders
fell down before the lamb.
Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense,
which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song.
You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals
because you were slaughtered,
and you purchased people for God by your blood
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they will reign on the earth.
So that's the first worship song we're looking at here
at the end of Revelation chapter five,
and I want us all to notice five things.
If you're taking notes and now you're like,
I don't need to take notes,
they're gonna email them to me, but whatever.
If you wanna write this down, okay.
There's five things that we're gonna notice in this.
One, we're gonna see who's involved
in the worship here in heaven.
We're gonna see what inspired their worship.
We're gonna see their posture in worship.
We're gonna see the tools that they employed
in their worship, and then lastly,
we're gonna look at the nature of the praise
that they give in worship.
And so the first thing is who's involved here
in this worship service?
Well, immediately we see that it says
there's four living creatures and the 24 elders.
Now next week, it adds to this worship service
that there are also many angels,
and then it says there is thousands
plus thousands of thousands in attendance
at this worship service, so there's a lot there.
Now specifically, we looked at the four living creatures
and the 24 elders when we studied chapter four.
If you remember, these four living creatures
were there in God's throne room,
and it's my understanding and my belief
that they're literal creatures.
Some people go, no, they're just
a metaphorical representation,
but I believe they're literal creatures
that exist there in heaven.
Now they do have a very strange description
as John did his best to describe what he was seeing there,
and he says that they're covered in eyes,
both front and back, both sides of their wings.
They have six wings each.
They bore the likeness of a lion, an ox,
a man, and an eagle, very strange-looking creatures,
but the term there that he uses for living creatures
is the Greek word zoa.
We get our English word zoology from this word,
and if you understand what the word zoology means,
it simply means a study of living creatures,
actual living creatures, and so this Greek word
zoa is a word not used to reference metaphorical things,
but actual living creatures, and so,
and then as we go through Revelation,
we see that these four living creatures
say and do things, they're involved in worship,
it actually told us that they worship
in a never-ending manner in the presence of God,
so they're special angelic beings of God's presence
hovering around the presence of God at all times,
and so they are there for this worship service.
Then it says the 24 elders, and if you remember then,
those elders are representative of the entire body of Christ,
every single Christian, they represent the entire church,
the saved, the redeemed that had been caught up
before the tribulation there in the throne room of God.
Now we get this from the ideas from both the Old Testament
and the New Testament, because in the Old Testament,
in the temple, in the tribe of Levi,
there were 24 priestly divisions,
so 24 divisions of priests from the tribe of Levi,
and these 24 divisions represented
all the people of Israel, and so we see that these 24 elders
are representative of all the people of God,
but then it's 24 elders, not 24 priests,
and in the New Testament, we know that an elder
is a church leader, an elder is a representative
of the church, and so thus, the 24 elders represent
the entire body of Christ there in heaven.
So what inspired their worship?
Well, what does it say there in the very beginning
of verse eight?
When he took the scroll.
That's what it tells us.
The worship that we're seeing here in Revelation five
is in response to a completed work of the lamb.
It's in response to a completed work of the lamb, Jesus.
The lamb of God, as we studied in the first part
of chapter five, stepped up, takes the scroll,
takes the ownership, the authority to rule.
Him taking the scroll was a result
of the finished redemption that he did,
that the redemption price that he paid
by shedding his blood, it was a finished work there,
and on that cue of him taking the scroll,
we read here in Revelation five
that then a response is given, a response of worship.
One of the things I want to point out here
is this whole scene shows us something
I think is very important, that there's order
in the worship service, okay?
There's order, it's not a chaotic mess, all right?
It's not a chaotic mess with people speaking over each other
and hooting and hollering and rolling down the aisle,
and it's orderly, all right?
Paul the apostle, in addressing how church services,
church gatherings are to be conducted,
he said this in 1 Corinthians 14, 40,
but everything is to be done decently and in order.
When the church gets together,
everything is to be done decently and in order,
and this includes worship.
You see, what we don't see here in heaven
is John standing there and just going,
I feel like hollering,
and just starts hollering over everybody,
and then the four creatures are like,
well, I'm an ox, moo, well, I'm an eagle, kaka,
and it's just this big mess of worship in heaven.
That's not what we see.
We don't see it just going off the rails, we see order.
In chapter five, it says that the lamb takes a scroll,
and then in response to that work,
the 24 elders and the four living creatures bow down,
and then they say certain things,
and they say them together in unity,
and they worship God that way.
And so, the inspiration of their worship here,
it teaches us that true worship,
it's a response to God.
That's what true worship is.
For the redeemed, it should be a natural response to God.
For those that have received salvation,
that have been forgiven and set free, right?
It should be a natural response of ours to worship God.
We shouldn't have to force it.
We shouldn't have to struggle to worship, right?
And I know there's times where we all deal with that,
but I think what we're about to get into
might tell us why we have those times
of struggle with worship, because worship,
it's not an appeal, it's not a coercion,
it's not a manipulation of God.
We don't worship God because we wanna put him
in the right mood to get what we want.
We've talked about that before as kids.
When you want something from mom and dad,
that's when you do the foot massages
and make breakfast in bed, and you do all the things, right?
And the parents are like, oh, thank you so much,
and it's always, what do you want, right?
Oh, that new video game, can you get it for me, right?
Worship of God isn't that.
It's not a show.
It's not a performance.
Really, all that to say that worship is not for us,
it's not because of us or about us.
True worship never has to be worked up
because it's not about a feeling.
It's not because of a feeling.
We don't only worship when we feel like it.
We worship because God is worth it.
And so, it's not to say that there isn't
or shouldn't be emotion in worship.
I mean, worship can be very emotional.
It could be a very emotional moment,
but it's not primarily feeling motivated.
Worship isn't about making us feel better.
It's not to get us in the mood for Bible study, right?
It's none of those things.
Worship should never be based
on whether I feel like worshiping or not.
That's not true worship.
Worship is in response to God for all he has done.
It's a response to him.
You know, God has worked in your life.
God is working in your life.
God has been working in your life all week long.
He's been faithful all week long.
He's been faithful every moment of every day.
You are his child.
He loves you.
Not only did he save you,
but he then does more in our lives, right?
He is faithful and has been,
and so worship is that opportunity where it's like,
it's your turn.
It's your turn to now respond to him
in gratitude and thanks for what he has done.
It's your turn to give him the glory.
It's your turn to give him the praise.
It's your turn to express to him his worth,
how amazing he is.
And that's what we see here in Revelation five.
It's a demonstration ultimately of love
to the one we love because he first loved us.
And so we see these 24 elders,
representative of the whole church
and the four living creatures,
and the next time also in attendance are the angels,
naturally responding,
inspired to worship Christ for what he has done.
That's the inspiration.
That's why we worship.
Now the third thing I wanna talk about this morning
is what was the posture of their worship?
What does it say there in the verses?
It tells us that they fell down before the lamb.
They fell down before the lamb.
They were so awestruck at what he had done.
They were so grateful at what God had done
in redeeming them and redeeming creation
and dealing with the curse.
They were so overwhelmed that now the earth
can be fully redeemed and bought back
and it's being bought back by God, the lamb,
the one who died for everything and paid the price.
Oh my gosh, the rulership, the dominion, the ownership,
it's restored, the curse is lifted, corruption is done.
Wow.
And so it says they fell down.
Now before you think fell down
is like a slain in the spirit type of thing,
that's not what this is, all right?
We don't work ourselves up to where like,
God is so great and we just fall over, right?
That's not the idea here, okay?
That term fall down or fell down,
it simply means to throw oneself to the ground
as a sign of devotion or humility.
In ancient times, doing this was one of the greatest
demonstrations of respect and veneration in ancient times.
To bow down, to do what this word is talking about.
The idea is getting down on the ground
in front of somebody to show devotion to them
and it's an action that you do in humility
to say you are worth it,
you deserve all the praise and the honor.
This concept, in fact, is seen all over the Old Testament.
You study through the Old Testament,
you'll see the word worship many times
and there's a whole bunch of different words for worship,
but the word that is used most frequently
in the Old Testament for worship, I can't pronounce it,
so I'm just gonna tell you what it means, okay?
It means, the word means, I think it's like shah-ha
or something like that, but the word means to bow down,
literally to bow down, to lie prostrate,
like to lie down face down on the ground
or to pay homage.
You guys understand the concept of paying homage, right?
That's when in ancient times you would go before the king
or the ruler or the person who was in that position
of authority and power and you would pay homage,
you would give to them, whether it was gifts or respect
or all that type of thing.
The word that's used most in the Old Testament is that word.
And so the idea of worship, going all the way back,
is this idea of bowing down or making oneself low
before another in humility, in humility.
As a matter of fact, Psalm 95, six says this,
come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
That's the idea, I'm paying homage to the king of kings.
I'm offering veneration to the one who is worthy.
I am lowering myself because he is high above all
and deserves to be.
You know, Paul even predicts that one day,
what does he say, every knee shall bow.
Every tongue will confess.
That's what's gonna come in the future.
And so the very act of worship
and what I'm defining here is true worship,
the very act of it, it's a complete emptying of self.
There is none of you, there is none of me
in that moment, that act of worship.
When we truly worship, there is none of us in it.
There is no preoccupation with self,
there is no focus on self, it's a full process
on self, it's a full preoccupation with God,
with him and what he has done.
It's all about him and him alone.
Now I think this might be why some people
don't involve themselves in worship
in the church like they should.
Because now I'm not intending to call anybody out here, okay?
So before you send me a really mean email,
okay, I'm not intending to call anybody out here.
But because there's good reasons for this,
but sometimes Christians might find themselves
showing up late to church.
Well, because the worship, it's not my style.
It's not my taste.
I don't like this or that.
I don't like the way that person sings
or I don't like the song selection.
And so I'm gonna show up late to church
just to avoid all of that.
I think it should be this way
and they don't do it that way,
so I'm just gonna avoid it altogether.
And you know, you think about it that way,
it's like man, it's hard to take the focus
off ourselves, isn't it?
You know, we approach the worship of God
through the lens of what my preferences are,
what my tastes are, how I think it should be,
what it should sound like according to my.
And you know, that's not true worship.
Sometimes it's not our preferences
that are high on the altar,
but our time that's high on the altar.
Sadly, we can sometimes find ourselves
claiming to worship God,
but we're not really expressing
this sign of humble devotion.
What we're doing is giving him the leftovers of our day.
And we wanna call that worship, right?
God, you'll have my focus.
You'll have my attention.
You'll have my passion.
You'll have my veneration.
You'll have my everything after.
You know, after this, after that.
I'm too busy.
I'm too distracted now.
I'm too blah, blah, blah, fill in the blank.
So I'll worship you later.
I'll venerate you as king and ruler and authority
on my time, you know, when it works for me,
when it's best for me.
And you know, in those situations,
we're claiming to give God all of our worship,
but only after we have worshiped
at the altar of everything else first.
You know, and I think in many ways,
Christians who are weak in worship
are often that way because they're weak
in their relationship with God.
They might say, you know, yeah, of course he's my God,
but he's not the number one priority of your life.
They might say, yeah, he's almighty,
but he only gets you when you're all done
with other things.
And of course, you know, you might say,
well, yeah, he deserves our all.
He deserves my everything only after
he meets my standards first.
Or when the worship meets my standards first.
Or if it's done the way I want first.
You know, and that's not true worship.
What we do here Sunday mornings when we gather together
the body of Christ, and of course we're studying the word,
but we have a time of worship and singing praises to God.
What we do here gathered together
as the congregation to worship,
it's supposed to be an overflow
of what we've already been doing all week long.
Some of us don't approach it that way.
We go, okay, I'm gonna come to church,
and the worship is gonna be my point of contact
and my recharge to get me through the week.
And then you go through the week
and you don't worship God at all.
And that's why you feel so empty and depleted
by the time you come back to church.
But if you haven't been living and bowed down humility
before God all week, you're gonna struggle
doing so on Sunday as well.
And so now let's look at the tools
that they employ in their worship.
Verse five, or chapter five, verse eight.
It tells us there that each one had a harp
and golden bowls filled with incense,
which are the prayers of the saints.
So they had a harp.
This is likely where the idea of little chubby angels
sitting on a cloud with a harp came from.
We've seen those pictures over time.
I don't think that's the picture, right?
But a harp, they're there with an instrument is the idea.
Now in some translations this might be rendered a lyre.
A harp and lyre could be two different instruments.
Sometimes they were referred to as the same instrument.
But our best understanding of what this word
was referring to is it's an ancient instrument
that was rectangle or trapezoidal in shape
and it had strings on it,
similar like the body of a guitar type of idea.
And it was an instrument that was played.
The strings were plucked as a song was sung
or words were simply spoken like poetry.
So there was even spoken word in those days
and they would have music behind it to accompany the idea.
Now music, both vocally and instrumentally,
is an important part of worship.
And we see it here, both vocally and instrumentally,
employed as the part of worship of God in heaven.
The reason I'm pointing that out
is there are certain groups of people within the church
even today that think instrumentation
as a part of worship is wrong.
It's bad.
That worship should only be the voice.
And if you think that way,
if that's your understanding of all that,
there shouldn't be guitars and there shouldn't be drums,
especially electric guitar because it's distorted
and that word distorted means something bad.
And all these types of ideas, if you think that,
well you have a problem with scripture.
You have a problem with scripture
because we see them employing instruments here
in the worship.
And so music, it's always been important
when it comes to the gathering of God's people.
We see it all the way throughout scripture.
In the Old Testament, music was employed
on many different occasions.
When the people, God's people would gather together.
We see it one time in the Red Sea
when the Red Sea swallowed up the Egyptians, right?
You go back to Exodus and you read that story
about God setting his people free
and they flee across the wilderness
and they get to the Red Sea and oh no, we're gonna die.
And then God does his miracle and parts the Red Sea
and they get across the Red Sea and then the ocean just boom,
takes care of Pharaoh and his army.
They didn't get to the other side and go,
oh, well done God.
Golf clap of celebration.
No, it tells us that they danced
and they had tambourines and they sang to the Lord.
They were just expressing their praise
and thanks to him in this really outward way.
In the temple, there would be worshiping groups
and instrumentation happening.
You can find that multiple places
throughout the Old Testament.
In 1 Chronicles 15, when the Ark of the Covenant
came back to Jerusalem the right way, right?
Because they had done it the wrong way first.
When they brought it back the right way,
we see there in 1 Chronicles 15,
David goes to the leaders of the priests, right?
The tribe that was specifically set aside,
you're not gonna have land,
you're focused on ministering to the people
on God's behalf and ministering for God in his temple.
And so he goes to the leader of the priests
in 1 Chronicles 15 and he says,
hey, I need you guys to appoint some of the priests
to be worship leaders, to lead the praise of God,
to lead in vocally and instrumentation, all that.
And he says this specifically,
to have them raise their voices with joy,
accompanied by musical instruments, harps, liars, and cymbals.
Specifically laid out as David was establishing there,
led by the Holy Spirit, I'm sure,
to establish worship in God's house
and those that would lead that worship.
In 1 Chronicles 25,
it's a really detailed roster of the worship team.
These priests that were picked to lead worship
in God's house.
It's a really neat list there, too.
You could read it through on your own later on,
but you have these worship leaders that were hand selected
and it says that part of their worship,
as they were leading the people and singing these praises
and playing instruments and doing this presentation of God,
it said that they prophesied vocally.
And then it says another group prophesied vocally
and with instruments.
So the very act of worshiping God can be prophetic,
speaking forth the truth of God,
and God could even speak forth the future of his intention
as we're praising him and being inspired to praise him.
But what's interesting is in this worship team
in 1 Chronicles 25, had 288 people on the team.
Can you imagine that?
I don't think we could fit 288 people on our stage.
But there's something very interesting
that it points out there in 1 Chronicles 25.
Verse seven, it says they were trained
and skillful in music for the Lord.
Now this is not to say that you can't worship God
unless you're trained and skillful,
because that would eliminate, I think, most of us, right?
We're like, I don't sing good
and I can't play an instrument to save my life.
But the idea is that scripturally,
there's a precedent for the importance
of those with a calling,
and those that God has gifted with a musical talent
to lead in worship.
And that's why periodically we'll put out the notice.
Hey, you know, we have some openings on our worship team.
And so if you feel like God has called you
or gifted you vocally,
or you have a talent with an instrument,
you know, we would like to talk to you
and audition you in that sense,
and see what God's doing in your life in that regard
to have you come be a part of the worship community.
But scripturally, we see this importance
of those with this calling and ability to lead in worship,
and even to be called into full-time ministry
as worship leaders.
In some churches, they'll have on staff a worship pastor
who's in charge of, or who is the elder leading
that part of the spiritual ministry to the body of Christ.
What's interesting is in Second Chronicles chapter 20,
we see worship even employed in battle.
In battle, as a part of the warfare, right?
Second Chronicles chapter 20 verse 21.
Jehoshaphat is going out to battle, and it says this.
Then he consulted with the people,
and appointed some to sing for the Lord,
and some to praise the splendor of his holiness.
When they went out in front of the armed forces,
they kept singing.
Give thanks to the Lord
for his faithful love endures forever.
The moment they began their shouts and praises,
the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites,
the Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir,
who came to fight against Judah, and they were defeated.
Did you notice the detail there?
It wasn't the soldiers who went out first.
It was the worship team.
They led the army.
How's that for a battle strategy, right?
Okay, we're going to war.
All right, we got our weapons, we got our ammo,
our supply lines are in place.
All right, the enemy's coming.
Ready, charge.
Send out the trumpet player, and the harp player,
and the lyre player, and the guy with the cymbals.
I mean, I guess you could hit them with a cymbal,
but how's that going to work?
How is that going to work?
But it was the worshipers.
And for those of you that might be thinking,
oh, well, those were the bad singers.
You go ahead of the army.
No, that wasn't what was taking place here, right?
You think you could sing, sure, lead the charge.
No.
But what I think is beautiful about this scripture here
is what happened when the worshipers worshiped
and sang, give thanks to the Lord
for his faithful love endures forever.
His faithful love for them endured.
That's what happened, right?
It says that the Lord said ambushes against their enemies
and their enemies were defeated.
But when did they worship?
Before the victory or after the victory?
Before the victory.
They worshiped before the victory.
They thanked God before the battle
for what he hadn't done yet, trusting that he would.
You see what worship is about?
God, you're holy.
You're almighty.
God, you can do all things.
God, I'm praising you because I don't have anything
to worry about in life because you go before me.
God, I haven't even gotten to the fight yet,
but I just wanna praise you and sing glory to your name
because I know you are with me.
Think about that next time you're in a battle,
heading into a battle, getting into a fight.
Think about that next time.
Maybe start with thanking God for the victory
he's already given you.
Maybe start with praising him.
That God, your faithful love for me endures forever
and so it's gonna endure with me through this fight
and hallelujah, praise your name.
Maybe for some it's in the context
of your marriage relationship, right?
People fight.
It's a fact of life there, but maybe next time
there's a battle coming or there's a fight brewing
or it's just starting to swell up, stop.
And together, let's worship God for a moment.
I know we're having a disagreement right now,
but let's worship God for a moment.
Just try and bring God into that moment
and say, God, I thank you for already reconciling us
through your blood.
I thank you for already resolving this fight
and this battle, God, we praise you for that.
Thank you for forgiving me of my sin.
Thank you for loving me forever, no matter what.
Do that and then see how hard it is to not extend grace
and mercy and forgiveness in that moment.
Music is and always has been just a powerful force
in society.
I think God made it that way.
I mean, every society, every culture has songs,
has folk songs, has anthems, something that inspire
or capture the hearts of people when we hear them, right?
Every country has a national anthem and when that's played,
there's a sense of patriotism that is supposed to be
welled up through that and music's powerful.
We sell stuff with music, right?
Millions and millions of dollars are spent every year
to hire somebody to come up with a jingle
that'll stick in your head.
Ready?
Ba ba ba ba ba.
There's jingles out there that just bring us to mind,
oh yeah, I should go to McDonald's, I should go do this,
or I should go do that.
You know, millions of dollars and it's like five notes.
But it's powerful.
We work to music, we sleep to music, some of us.
Music can change our mood, it can change our thoughts,
it can, you know, it's powerful and I believe God moves
in and through music.
And I think God made us to respond to it.
That's why it's such a critical, important part
of our worship of Him.
Yeah, we talk about work is worship,
work is unto the Lord and our giving is worship, right?
And yeah, we get to give to God in support of Him
and His kingdom and we're just giving back
what He's given us and God, yeah, that's worship too.
And studying the word together, we are worshiping God
as we venerate His word, yes.
But there's something powerful
about the musical part of worship,
the singing and the playing and the effect it has on us.
Now the big question that comes up out of this is,
well, what style of music is in heaven?
Well, metal core, of course.
I mean, come on, that's easy.
No, I think it's gonna be there.
I think all music is gonna be there in heaven.
You know, and in some might go, well, what was the style
of music in ancient Israel?
And we don't really know.
But we could look back in scripture
to kind of find out how the music was presented.
One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 150,
verses three through five, and it says this.
Praise Him with the blast of a ram's horn.
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with tambourine and dance.
Praise Him with strings and flute.
And my favorite verse, praise Him with resounding cymbals
and praise Him with clashing cymbals.
That sounds pretty metal to me.
But the idea of those verses is that it was loud, right?
The blasting of the ram's horn.
It was tasteful and beautiful with the harp and the lyre.
It was rhythmic.
It was celebratory.
It made you move.
It did something to you as a part of your response to God.
So there was a benefit of the music for you,
but that's not what it was about.
In music, it does indeed move us
as a part of our response to God.
But not just physically.
I'm not just speaking physically, right?
I'm a toe-tapper.
People hate sitting in pews with me
because my feet bounce constantly.
Like, can you stop that?
I'm like, I wish I could.
There's a reason I'm a drummer, okay?
But when we think of being moved,
when we worship God and we're singing these words to Him
and we're thinking about all He has done for us
and all that He has accomplished,
and we sing out in our voice,
and nowhere in scripture does it say
it needs to be a beautiful voice, right?
That joyful noise we talk about all the time.
But we were expressing to God,
or maybe it's instrumentation.
You could play, so you play guitar,
you play drums or keyboard or whatever instrument.
You're just expressing and singing out
and playing out your gratitude to Him.
You can absolutely be moved to tears,
moved to laughter, moved to all kinds of emotions.
Music has that effect on us.
There was a song, some of you are familiar
with the band named Skillet.
They're kind of a Christian rock band.
I love them, they're great.
And a few years ago, they came out with a new album
and I'm listening to it,
and I'm like, yeah, this is good stuff, right?
And then they had this one song on there called Stars.
And it was kind of like a rock ballad type of thing.
First time I listened to that song,
I just started blubbering like a baby.
You know, because it was talking about like,
no matter what's happening in life, the storms,
how much I've messed up, God, you hold my heart
because you're the one who holds the stars, right?
And I would listen to that and I'm like,
you know, I'm just so moved by the words.
And then over the years,
sometimes I go back and listen to it and I'm moved again.
I just, I don't know what it is,
but that particular song is an example
of me being moved emotionally about it.
And I just wanna just cry these words out to God
because it's just speaking such a powerful truth for me,
right, songs can do that to us.
But still, sometimes people get caught up
and well, what kind of music does God enjoy
and what genre and how fast or how slow?
And here's the answer to that question.
Whatever comes from your heart,
if it's true and honest about praising Him,
that's what honors God.
And that could be hymns, that could be punk rock,
that can be Maranatha music,
that could be metalcore, hallelujah, right?
It's all of it involved as long as the point is
worshiping Him and praising Him and giving Him glory.
It says they had golden bowls filled with the incense,
which are the prayers of the saints.
This is a picture of,
from the Old Testament of the priests in the temple.
When the priest would walk in to the holy place,
they would walk in with this bowl
filled with incense and the incense was burning
and that bowl, it represented the prayers of the people.
And so as a part of the worship service,
what you would have is the people were outside
in the temple of the courtyard praying.
They were literally praying.
They're lifting up their prayers to God
in a big communal prayer service
and then as that was happening,
the priest would then walk in to the holy place
to offer those prayers to God represented by the incense.
We see that concept in Psalm chapter 141 verse two.
It says, may my prayer be set before you as incense,
the raising of my hands as the evening offering.
And so you have this bowl here in heaven
that these elders are holding representing
all the prayers of God's people.
Now, I want to point out this is a part of worship.
This is a part of the worship of God,
all the intercessions, all the pleadings,
all the confessions, all the burdens,
all the worries, all the fears, all the anxieties,
all being poured out to God as he is listening.
And the idea of the incense,
incense was something that was sweet smelling.
And so the idea here is that your prayers
being poured out to God as an act of worship
are sweet smelling to God.
Like it's never something startling
or surprising or annoying to God.
We've all had that moment, right?
I'm experiencing those moments with my grandson right now.
That's an interesting aroma, a little startling.
Our prayers aren't like that to God.
It's a sweet smelling aroma.
This is wonderful, this is great, this is beautiful.
This is an awesome thing he loves
and he enjoys hearing the prayers of his kids.
And when we are pouring our prayers to him,
especially in song and music,
and that's the context of it is
we're pouring out our prayers to him as a part of worship.
It's an act of worship, why?
Because the very act of prayer
is you and me voicing your utter dependence on him.
The very fact that you're saying God I need you.
That's worship.
God you are capable, you are worthy,
you can handle this, I trust you, right?
Those singers going out before battle,
Lord you've already given me the victory,
here's the issue, here's what I'm about to walk into,
but God I know you know and know you're gonna fix it.
It's this whole idea of expressing your trust
and your faith and your belief in him
by bringing it to him.
So verse nine, we get to the nature of the worship.
It says they sang a new song.
You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals
because you were slaughtered
and you purchased people for God by your blood
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You made them a kingdom and priest to our God
and they will reign on the earth.
So the nature of their worship here,
it says in the very beginning they sing what?
A new song, okay?
Now what do they mean by that, right?
How old can a song be before we have to stop singing it?
You know is it five years, is it 10 years?
Is that even what they mean?
I don't think so.
It doesn't mean what you probably think it means.
Now in the book of Psalms,
which was really the song book of Israel,
you have the concept, this concept of a new song
comes up nine times throughout the entire book of songs.
And in that idea, some people do get hung up
on the age of songs.
Like is it an old song, is it a new song?
And then you start to go well is it a good one
or a bad one based upon those types of things?
And I've mentioned some of that, right?
Sometimes we hear like why can't we just do only hymns?
As if those are the only spiritual songs
that have ever existed.
Some today from the early Calvary Chapel movement
will sometimes go why can't we just do
the old Maranatha stuff?
As if that was the only spiritual music
that will ever exist.
Others are you know why can't we do this stuff
for that, you know fill in the blank of the era
of what it is.
And we get caught up in that type of thinking
but I think the reason we could get caught up
in that type of thinking in regards to worship
is because of the nature of music
and its effect on us and how it ties us emotionally
to moments, right?
Many of us most typically like best
the worship music that was on the radio
or was prevalent during the most spiritually vibrant
times of our lives.
That tends to be fairly common.
You know during that decade or that time
you know just man I was maybe a brand new baby Christian.
Maybe it was like when you first got saved
and the wonder of all of that was there.
And so the music from that time
that's like your favorite worship music
or maybe it was a different season of life
but God was moving powerfully
and all the songs of that time right?
They're just like oh that's my favorite worship music
and we could find ourselves being like
why can't we do that and only that.
But those songs, those memories,
the nostalgia that we get from those older songs
or those times from another period,
it's all tied to what God was doing then.
That's what it's tied to.
And if that's all we want to sing,
if that's all we want to sing out to God and worship,
what we are essentially saying
or at least in danger of saying is God,
I only want to celebrate what you once did
because you're not doing anything now.
You may not say those words
but that can be an inclination of the heart.
And so we're called to sing a new song in that regard.
The idea is to have an ever growing,
fresh expression of what God is doing today in your life
and praising him for what he is doing now
and praising him for what he is doing in this season of life.
Now that doesn't mean an old song
can't express what God is doing in this moment of your life.
So it's not the age of the song in that regard, right?
It could be an old hymn that you hear
and it's like, oh my gosh, God is just,
that is what God is doing in my life right now
and you just want to sing that and praise that out to him.
Amen.
It doesn't mean that remembering what God has done
in the past is in any way inherently a bad thing, right?
There's a lot about that,
about remembering what God has done, right?
We're responding to what God has done in worship.
And so this idea of a new song is like,
oh, it doesn't have to only be this,
but sometimes we do fall into a trap of thinking
it only has to be this, old stuff.
And in that it can mean that in your worship,
maybe you're clinging to past graces
or clinging to past blessings in your living
and you're walking in that past work that God did
instead of living and walking in what God is
and wants to do today.
That's the idea of singing a new song.
And if you're tied to just simply walking in,
celebrating what God has done in the past,
that can be a part of why the new songs don't appeal to you.
No, no, no, it's only this past nostalgia,
this past feeling, this past work.
That's all I want to stay in.
And so there'll be new songs, new music come out
and you're like, no, that doesn't speak to me, you know?
And maybe it might if you open your eyes
to what God is doing today.
Make sense?
All right.
I read this story about a young man who once told his dad,
hey dad, I love God, I love the church,
but the music is kind of boring.
And his dad got mad at him, how dare you, right?
Those songs are our foundation and our tradition
and he's like, you know, if you don't like them,
why don't you write some songs then?
And the kid said, you know what, I'm gonna do that.
His name was Isaac Watts.
He ended up writing many of the most famous worship songs
that are even still sung today.
He wrote some, gosh, it's hundreds and hundreds of songs,
like for example, Joy to the World,
which I think in its day was pretty speed metal
for its time.
It's a pretty upbeat song.
He wrote When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.
These are songs we still sing today
because they capture something of what God is doing
in every generation.
But every generation, every culture,
has an ever evolving expression through music,
through song, and as God moves in each generation,
the expression of praise and worship through music
will change as well.
It'll change stylistically, it'll change instrumentally,
it'll even change vocally, and that is a good thing
as long as it's in response to God
and focused on him and what he's done.
And so, not only was it a new song, as it says,
but it was a song for, as we've been talking about,
what God has done.
What they're singing back to God is you are worthy
to take the scroll, you are worthy to open its seals
because you were slaughtered for us, right?
And you purchased us.
The idea is you've redeemed us for God by your blood
out of all the people of the earth.
I mean, I think if you're a songwriter
and you wanna have an anointed worship song,
just fill it with Jesus.
Just fill it up with Jesus and really make sure
his sacrifice, what he's done for us
and what he's done for you is kind of the centerpiece
of all of that.
I'm not saying exclusively that's only a worship song,
but I think that would be anointed
because it's all about him and his sacrifice.
And when churches try to remove the blood from the worship,
or remove the death, or remove the sacrifice
from the worship, and that happens in a lot of places today.
The music is turning to be so focused on me
and my experience and what I've offered to God
and what I've done.
And that's not to say a good worship song
can't be like, God, I love you, right?
But there's a difference in it's about him
versus it's about me.
But when churches try and remove these elements,
it kills the life of the worship.
It kills what it's about, it kills what it's for.
And so you'll notice too that the worship song
was a song that only the redeemed could sing, right?
The unsaved couldn't sing this, you purchased us.
You redeemed us from all the nations of the world.
The unsaved can't sing that song.
That's something that only the redeemed can sing
and I think this is a paramount characteristic
of true worship.
Because it's based on a true relationship with God
and what he's done.
And lastly, the song was about what God would do
now and in the future, right?
You're gonna make us kings and priests.
You know, I think worship should
fling us into the future.
Should fling our minds into the future,
remind us about our future state,
remind us about what's to come as his children.
You know, when we marvel at what God will do for us
and with us, what God is gonna do beyond our time
here on earth.
When we think about, like, you know,
especially in context of the difficulties
and the struggles of life and we go,
I wanna put that aside, I wanna put the conflict aside
and the fighting and all that.
God, I just, Lord.
And we think about where we're gonna be,
that he's gonna make us a kingdom.
His kingdom, kings and priests to his glory,
ruling with him and I believe this is a reference
directly to the millennium that is to come
and we'll get into that later.
But the idea of that, God, we're gonna be coheirs
with you forever.
That definitely changes our perspective on now.
And so, worship is for God.
It's about God.
It's to God.
But it does, I'm not gonna ignore the fact
that it does have a beneficial effect for us.
When we put our focus on the one who rules our life now
and the one who's gonna make us rule with him
in the future, when we put our focus on the salvation
we have now and the glory that means in the future,
I think it's one of the greatest deliverances
from anxiety and depression.
From anxiety and depression and fear and all of that stuff.
None of those things can tie us down
because we're free.
And we express that in worship.
So, get used to worship.
Get used to singing, get used to playing,
get used to all of that because we're gonna be
doing it forever.
We're gonna be doing it for all of eternity.
God made us to worship him.
God made us to respond to him in singing and song
and it's a wonderfully amazing gift and thing
we get to do as his people.
You know, the Bible says a joyful heart
makes a face cheerful.
And so sing.
Make that joyful noise.
Respond to God in worship.
Bow your heart to him in reverent humility
because he is worth it.
And so, today I wanted to close our service
with an old song, right?
But it's one that's been speaking to me lately
in what God is doing in my life today.
And I pray it speaks to what God is doing
in your life today.
But it's tied to our study, right?
It's from a scripture I referenced earlier, Psalm 95-6.
Come let us worship and bow down.
And so we're gonna close in that song and I just pray
that you just respond to what God has done.
In that concept of bowing your heart before him
in reverence and humility.
Knowing that we deserve nothing.
Knowing that we have earned nothing.
We're sinners.
But we're sinners saved by the grace of Almighty God.
We're people redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah.
And we get to go to heaven one day.
I can't wait to get there.
I hope you can't wait to get there.
And in the meantime, let that hope before us
carry us through the difficulties of now.
Take that opportunity to worship him truly.
To worship him with true worship.
It's not about you, not about me,
not about our preferences, not about our likes,
not about any of that, but all about him, amen?
Let's pray.
Lord, we love you.
And God, I know we don't love you perfectly.
But Lord, you didn't ask us to be perfect people.
You just want us to respond to you.
You want us to put you in that place,
that number one place in our lives.
You want us to choose you as our priority
and our reason for being God.
Lord, how can we not after what you've done for us?
But yet, Lord, we struggle.
So Lord, today, let today be a reminder
of what we're called to do in worshiping you.
Let today be an encouragement, God,
of where we're to put our focus and our hearts
in regards to worshiping you, God.
Yes, Lord, we're thankful for the gift
of different types of music that appeal
to our interest and likes, and God,
we're so grateful, Lord, for all of that.
But Lord, at the end of the day,
we don't worship because we like it,
we don't worship because it makes us feel good.
We worship because you are worthy.
And so God, may we be people of worship, Lord.
Let us be people who worship and bow down.
Let us be people who have kneeling hearts before you.
We love you, we thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, let's worship.