Worship and Warfare Part II, “Hindrances to Worship” Bible Study 12/15/10

Worship and Warfare Part II

Hindrances to Worship

Synopsis of Bible study 12/15/10

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

 

God is looking for worshipers. The bible teaches us that the Lord seeks those that will worship him in spirit and in truth. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says ⁹For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. -God is looking for people who are genuinely focused towards his glory. This is important, because when you think about worship, it is the idea of knowing who God is and it is the idea of being in relationship with who God is. How we comprehend or understand God is significant to how we worship. Ex – Look at the difference between Moses and the children of Israel. Psalm 103:7-8 says ⁷He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. ⁸The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. – This scripture is talking about God’s ways and acts. Psalm 95:10 says ¹⁰Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: – When you talk about the ways of God, you talk about the nature of God verses the act of God. If you only focus on the act of God without knowing the nature of God, then you will misinterpret who God is. Moses knew the ways of God. God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Sometimes God may act in a way or do something in our lives that we don’t agree, but if we know his nature, we know that what he allows is for our good. When we think about God’s acts, we refer to God’s actions. God is actively involved in our lives.

 

God is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. This is a character statement explaining who God is.  Ex – You need a job, you pray for it, but you didn’t get. Just because you didn’t get that job, doesn’t mean God is not active on our behalf. It doesn’t mean he is not actively setting us up for another job. Because you know his ways, you still say he his Jehovah Jireh, because you know he is actively working on things for our behalf. We realize that he is Jehovah Rophe our healer. Just because we get a bad report doesn’t mean we are not getting healed. It means God may be taking the long route to bring things out of us and as a result, healing ultimately comes.

I.                   The new and living way

a.     Some people come to church, ready for worship, but there are a of lot distractions. As a result we find ourselves 20 mins into the service trying to get focused. Hebrews 10:19-20 says ¹⁹Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; – In the Old Testament, the way to the holies was behind the veil in the temple. Only the high priest could go there and he did so on our behalf. After Christ died, the veil was ripped in two. That meant we no longer do we needed a high priest to go to God on our behalf, because now we have access to him ourselves through our relationship with Christ our mediator. Hebrews 8:6 says ⁶But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises., Hebrews 10:20-22 says ²⁰By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; ²¹And having an high priest over the house of God; ²²Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. – You cannot try in the flesh to focus on spiritual things. You have to ask God to purify your heart so we can have a pure and holy experience with God without distractions. We are asking the Lord to give us a clean conscious. Flesh can’t do this. It is an act of the spirit. It is ok to tell the Lord that you can’t come into his presence with a lot of mess and distractions in our lives and we need him to remove it.

II.                The categories of man

a.     There are 3 categories of man. They are the Natural man, the carnal man, and the spiritual man.

i.        Natural Man - Unsaved person without access to the holy of holies.

ii.        Carnal Man– People that act both carnal and spiritual depending on what day it is.

iii.        Spiritual Man -Try to be spiritual all the time. We want to live by the spiritual and not the natural man. We want our spirit to transcend the carnal nature in our lives.

b.     Some revelations God doesn’t’ give us cause we are not at a spiritual place that we could receive them. 1 Corinthians 3:1 says ¹And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. – He speaks to us in a carnal way, because we can’t get it spiritually yet. Ex- When you witnessing to someone that is a babe in Christ, you can’t use a lot of spiritual jargons, because they don’t understand what you are saying.

c.     When you pray, remember the model prayer opens with worship and ends in worship. For example, “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thou name … “The end says, “… for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever …” This is worship to. So it is safe to say it opens and closes by acknowledging. We can ask what we are asking fro in between, but we open and close with worship. This means I can’t effectively pray unless I am a true worshipper.

d.     We often quote the next scripture to support that we can ask God for anything and it will happen. Mark 11:23-24 says ²³For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. ²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

e.     Know that if we hold on to this stuff in our heart, the promises will not happen because God will not hear our prayer. Psalm 66:18 says ¹⁸If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: – We try to worship holding on to carnality. God won’t hear you this way. It can be disillusioning. Ex- Say the husband or wife in a relationship is trifling, they devalue the other, and then one day they come and say to the other spouse, “I love you.”  To the nontrifling spouse, the fact that the trifling spouse has said “I love you” means nothing, because their heart shows different. Imagine how God feels.

III.             Hindrances to worship

1. Lack of knowledge-Says we don’t spend time in God’s word. Studying God’s word is worship. Worship means face to face kissing with God. We study God’s word to learn more about God. There are those who don’t know you, but want to be close to you like they do. Hebrews 11:6 says ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Every time we spend time in God’s word, we start becoming more like God. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says ¹⁸But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. – Worship should change you. We start to be more like him. Ex-Bishop explains he remembers when he was little, seeing a Deacon smoking a cigarette and cursing somebody out in the church parking lot. Bishop explains how as a young lad, this messed him up. We expect for people to look and be different when they come out of worship.

b.     Pride - 1 Corinthians 1:29 says ²⁹That no flesh should glory in his presence. – God is not impressed with our possessions. He is not impressed with what you drive, what you wear, or what kind of clothes you have on. He is looking for somebody that is desperate to have the glory of God on our life. Our flesh cannot glory. There are too much of us in the way. We should want people to see God and not ourselves.

c.     An independent attitude- It is that “I got it spirit.” You turn all your stuff inside, because you think you got it. The more you have it, the more messed up it gets. John 15:5 says ⁵I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. – We are just a branch. Some of us just feel like we are just hanging on.

d.     A critical attitude- Often manifests out of pride or judging. Ex-One of the thesis is dealing with hierarchy of sin. It’s funny how people in church create hierarchy of sins as if some form of defiant behavior is greater than another. It is like saying that we can justify our behavior, because it is not bad as somebody else’s. Ex-I might do weed, but I don’t do crack or I am not a homosexual, but I will fornicate. Matthew 7:1-2 says ¹Judge not, that ye be not judged. ²For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again., Romans 2:1 says ¹Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. – There is no hierarchy on sin. Sin is sin. Stealing is stealing. Whether you rob a store or shop lift, it is stealing.

e.     Apathy- This is laziness. How many people can have a lot of stuff to do and never seem to get it done? God is active. Apathy is like standing still. You are trying to get with the move of God, while standing still. God is always moving. Ex- If a truck is going 30 miles per hour, the likelihood of you jumping on the truck from a standstill if far less likely than if you trotted alongside the truck and then jumping on. This is the same way with the God. You can have a powerful move of God going on and some are wonder what is going on. They have apathy. They are just sitting there waiting to jump onto the move of God. On the other hand, you have others that are already running just waiting for the move of God to come by so they can jump on.

f.      Slothfulness - Ecclesiastes 10:18 says ¹⁸By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. – Doing nothing, the house is decaying until it finally falls through. In other words, everything you do just falls through due to your idleness.

g.     Impatient - We want things right now in this day and age. Hebrews 6:12 says ¹²That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. – Sometimes you have to learn how to turn stuff over. What about those bills? They turned over and decided not to worry about it anymore. These are people who have turned it over to God and decided to let God handle it. We want to wait for God’s best to manifest in our lifein our lives. -James 1:4says ⁴But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. – The devil will try to capitalize on your lack of patience. He will try to get us to believe that God is taking too long.

h.     Legalism- This is the subtle hindrance. It is becoming proud of all you do for Christ. You want brownie points for what you have done. They think their works earned them certain benefits. They have entitlement issues. Isaiah 64:6 says ⁶But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. – The purpose of worship is not to draw attention to your work, but his work.

i.      Worldliness- We can’t escape the world system, but we have to learn to live above it. 1 John 2:15 says ¹⁵Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. – We have to learn to live in another kingdom. Even though I obey the laws of this world, we live by different laws. We are not impacted by what the world is impacted with. We don’t have to lose our integrity to climb the corporate ladder. The world calls it recession and we call it regrouping. Just because we are in recession don’t mean that God can’t open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you don’t have the room to receive. We are living in another world system.

j.        Unforgiveness- This will always separate us from worship. There are 2 ways to look at this. #1 we don’t forgive and #2 we don’t ask forgiveness from God. Ex- Remember the illustration we gave one step towards God and then we take 3 steps back. Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59:1-2 says ¹Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ²But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.- When we pray we have to ask God to forgive us for our trespasses. Mark 11:25 says ²⁵And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. – We must forgive. Every day we wake up, we are in a place of confessions. If you have problems praying, start with what you have to repent from. That will be enough to keep us praying without ceasing. 1 John 1:9 says ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – When we take the 3 steps back, our confession helps to make up some of that ground. It bring us back closer to that intimate relationship with God.

k.     Wrong priorities- Exodus 20:3 says ³Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Matthew 6:33 says ³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. – Seek means to pursue. God is active and because we are like him, we are not apathetic. This means we are actively in pursuit of something. If we pray “thou kingdom come”, this is God’s way of doing things. We are saying let your super come down into our natural making it super natural. We seek or are in pursuit of God’s way of doing things and we are in pursuit of his righteousness. We want continuity. Instead of worship being a verb, we want it to be noun. It is not what we do, but who we are. Thing shall be Added- We didn’t seek after the things. We sought him and the things just came. Matthew 7:7 says ⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: -If you asked God for it, he already knows what you want. We need super to come down into our natural. What is knocking? It is an intimate relationship or worship. Knocking is worshiping God so the door will be opened. What is the door? You need God to open the doors in heaven for you. It’s a supernatural door. You need things done that can’t be done down here. God says you already asked me. You don’t have to remind him. God is looking for people who could worship him before it happens and having faith that he is working to make it happen. If you don’t worship him, then you don’t have faith and belief that he is actively making it happen. Ex-In Acts 12, Peter was in prison. The church was a Mary’s house praying. While they were praying for Peter and the doors of prison opened up where Peter was. It was supernatural. If you worship him here and God will open doors there! Take a moment to worship him for who he is and his glory will come!

Questions every Christian should be able to answer Part VII, Bible Study 0819/09

Questions every Christian should be able to answer Part VII
Worship
Bible Study 08/19/2009
Delivered by Bishop Walker

All of us have our own understanding of what worship is. Is it who we are or what we do? We wonder does it have anything to do with the context that we are in such as having music in the background or is it something you can do in the shower or driving down the road.
Worth is the English word for worship. Worth has something to do with value or something that is important enough to justify. Worship has worth. When something is of value, you contribute to it. Ex-If you have a penny or a quarter, you realize that the quarter is more valuable, because you know the worth of the quarter.
Many of us know we have a ways to go to get to real worship. The more we grow and learn about God, the more we appreciate the value that worship has in our life. Until we realize the value of God, we can never worship him the way we are supposed to. The essence of worship is tied to the value of who God is. God is worthy of our worship. When we worship, we contribute worth to God.
There is a Hebrew word for worship called – shachah ( shaw khaw – Strong’s #7812). It means to bow down, to prostrate oneself. It is to bow down or do give homage to God. This whole idea of going prostrate is that we come off of our ego trip and we literally humble ourselves in the presence of God.
There is a word in Greek for worship called proskuneo(pros-koo-neh’-o), meaning kiss toward or kiss the hand of him. It is not about a one night stand with God. God doesn’t want you to worship him in the moment and then later you are out cursing and drinking. God wants worship to be continuous, always being at a point where we can connect with God.
Latreuo (lat-ryoo’-o) is a Latin word for worship. It is a correlation between worship and service. Whatever we do for God must be worship. Everything we do must have God in it.
When we put all three of these together we get that Worship involves our attitude, our emotion, our actions, our mind, and our will. We literally come to a place where we humble ourselves and lay before God. We do this willingly without getting forced to do it.
Here is a great quote that will bless you. “Worship is the soul bowing itself in adoration or contemplation before the object worshiped”. Worshipping God is to bow before God in adoring contemplation of himself. When we pray we are occupied with our needs and the needs of others. When we render thanksgiving we are occupied with our blessings, because we are thankful, but when we worship God, we are occupied with only him. When we are worshipping God it has nothing to do with other people or material things. It is all about him. In worship we empty ourselves focusing on him and we are saying God is the most important thing in our lives. We are declaring that in him we live and have our very being.
In Acts 17, Paul has a discourse with some historic philosophers on Mars Hill. This was a place where scholars would come together and talk about philosophical and theological things. Paul told them on one occasion that they had been worshiping God ignorantly, because they thought worshipping God with chairs, religious artifacts, and even particular temples was the way to worship. Paul reminds them that God could not be worshiped in a particular context. Paul reminded them that God could not be worshipped in a temple made by mans hands. The idea is when we really apply worship in our lives; it is a sense that we are occupied with God. The only way to be occupied with God is to have a sense of focus.
When we worship, we get to a place where at this moment, nothing else matters but him. We declare that we just want to fall back in love with God. We come not asking for anything. Our worship has nothing to do with context. In worship, stuff could be going wrong in our lives, but it has nothing to do with our response to God. Our worship to him is a defiant way of saying to the devil that no matter what happens in our lives, it never will deplete the glory of God. In other words we will not sit with our lips stuck out because a certain thing we wanted did not happen. What happened or didn’t happen has nothing to do with who God is. God is simply worthy of our Worship. What do we do when God doesn’t do what we want him to do? What if we don’t get the tuition? What will we do if he doesn’t heal our body? Do we say since he didn’t do what we wanted, he must no care for us? God is not our bellman who takes our bags wherever we want him to. God is sovereign and has the ability to do whatever he wants to do. What we have to do is recognize all things work together for the good of them who love God and are called according to his purpose. If we can just worship God, we will understand that God may be working this thing out while we are in worshipping him. Many of us have contiguous relationships where we only will worship him if he does what we want, but true worship has nothing to do with contiguousness.
I. Why do we worship?
1. Man was created to worship God. 1 Corinthians 10:31: 31Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. -Whatever we do is worship, because God gets the glory out of whatever we do. Our simply going to school or work every day is an act of worship, because we represent God and he gets the glory in all we do. When we take breaks, we don’t talk about management or anybody else, because what we do is about worshiping God. When a preacher preaches, they don’t just throw stuff together, because their delivering the word is an act of worship. As worshippers, we want to give God the best every time we step out. Everything we do ought to be to the glory of God.
2. If you minimize your gifts, you minimize God. You must use your gifts to the glory of God, because he gave them to for you to worship him. Everything God created still does what it is supposed to do. The rooster still crows, the cow still moos, but yet God’s greatest creation (mankind) just sits with their hands folded instead of doing what God called them to do.
II. God is seeking worshippers.
1. God is looking for someone who values a relationship with him. Can you imagine having children in the house? You brought all their clothes, all their food, all their games. You go through the house and you see clothes on the floor, food left in dishes on the table, and games strode all over the house. Because of all this you see, you begin to feel that everyone in the house is taking your for granted. You begin to wonder if you are loved, because you see all the stuff you worked hard for laying around. You can tell that they don’t realize the value of having you. John 4:23: 23But The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. –Just like the previous example given, God is searching the house for someone that sees the value of a relationship with him. God is looking for somebody ready to say that he is the best thing that has ever happened to them or someone ready to say they appreciate everything that he has done in their life. The time has come where God is looking for true worshippers.
III. God calls us to worship.
1. Worship will be our occupation in heaven. Psalm 95:6: 6O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. – All we are going to do in heaven is worship God. Some people are ashamed to worship out of fear of what people may think or the fact that they don’t appear weak.
2. Worship before the throne. Revelation 4:5-6: 5And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. -There is a sea of crystals before the throne. Now to get a visual, imagine the stage of a theatre being the throne and all the seats on the floor and the balcony being a sea of crystals. There are some people who are in the back of most churches that worship God, but it is mechanical. They go through the motion, but there is no intimacy. Imagine being in the relationship with someone and you were trying to get them to love you like they love them. Ask yourself have you ever been in a relationship with someone where they loved you 90% but there was 10% you just could not tap into. That 10% represents what we allow to interrupt us from worshipping God. Now like this relationship, we only allow 90% of our beings to worship and focus on God until that 10% of us that has us distracted, hurts us. After the hurt we finally decide to focus 100% on God. As you worship at a 100%, you begin to come closer to God on the throne in the midst of the sea of crystals. The more you worship, the closer you get. Finally you find yourself at the throne of God and you look down into the crystal and you are able to see yourself the way God sees you though the reflection of the crystals. You could not see this far away, but up close you see yourself and how flawed and sinful you really are. We are so unworthy. Seeing all of this, you wonder why God would use someone like us. When we are this close, we don’t’ have time to see other peoples mess. All we see is how messed up we are. After we realize that he still trusts us with our gifts and blessing despite how bad we look to him, we can’t help but to bow down and worship him. Until you get close to the throne, you will never see yourself as you really are!
3. Around the throne were 4 beasts. These beasts had eyes and could see. The beasts represent the 4 gospels and like the beast they saw and then they wrote about it. Because of the vision John saw, he wrote it down.
a. Verse 7a says: 7And the first beast was like a lion… The lion represents the gospel of Matthew. Matthew is where it is written that Jesus is King of kings like the lion is the king of the jungle.
b. Verse 7b says, and the second beast like a calf… This represents Gospel of Mark. Mark like the calf depicts Jesus as a servant.
c. Verse 7c says, and the third beast had a face as a man … This represents the book of Luke. Luke shows us the humanity of Jesus Christ such is found in the story of the prodigal son.
d. Verse 7d says, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle… This represents the Gospel of John. Here we have the dispensation of the Holy Spirit being announced.
4. What were 4 beasts doing around the throne? The word was together. The only way we can get worship together is to get the word together. This has nothing to do with your belief, your doctrine, or your denomination. This is about you getting into the word. If we get the word together, our worship will come together.
5. Your bible says and the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they did not rest day or night. You question might be what did they do? Well we are glad you asked. They cried, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come!” Revelation 4:8: 8And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. – It is like you have this marvelous depiction of seraphims bowing down around the throne saying Holy, Holy, Holy and when they came back up, God had done something else, and they bowed down again saying Holy, Holy, Holy and then they looked out over creation, God had done something marvelous again, and they had to go back down and say Holy, Holy, Holy once again. Every time they go down and come back up, God has done something marvelous again. Just like this, every time you go worship God, you come back and God has done something for you again. They worshipped God in heaven and therefore we ought to realize the power of worshipping.
IV. Who do we worship?
1. We worship God alone. Even though we have admiration for a man or woman, there is no saint or angel that should be worshipped but God himself. If you are not careful, you will let your admiration for someone slip into idolatry. You will begin to worship inadvertently what you never intended to worship. Ex-Our church (Mt Zion) is a melting pot of many cultures and doctrines. There are lots of dominations that make up the Mt Zion church family. There are former Baptist, Primitive Baptist, Presbyterian, AME, CME, Church of God in Christ, Catholics, Apostolic, Church of Christ, and etc…We come together because we are trying to get this word on one accord, because until we get this word together, we will never begin to worship God in truth.
2. The word of God says worship God alone. Acts 10:25-26: 25And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. 26But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. – Peter was the one God left over the disciples. Peter was also the one that God said he left the keys to the kingdom to. Peter was an awesome leader and Cornelius met Peter and fell down and worshipped him because he admired him so, but Peter told him to stand up, because he also was a man!
3. In Revelation, after John had seen all he had seen, fell down at the feet of the Angel of the Lord to worship him. The angels that showed him these things told John not to worshipper him and went on to explain that he was his brother. He tried to tell John that he was just like him and he instructed him to worship God. Revelation 22:8-9:8And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. – We have icons today where we worship men of God, but Bishop reminds us not to worship him. He explains that he is thankful that we love him, but he reminds us that all worship goes to God. Bishop explains that he is just a man that is being used by God. Just like a parent that would never leave their kid with someone that is irresponsible, he wouldn’t leave us with someone that would feed us nothing but junk food. He explains that he is just a man that eats cheerios and drinks mountain dew to stay awake just like the next man. He explains that he is simply a man being used by God. There are people that might admire you, but don’t let people worship you. Have them worship God. We can admire people, but not worship them. We can appreciate Michael Jackson’s music, but we don’t worship him. We admire the King of Rock, the King of Soul, and the King of Pop, but all those great kings are gone, yet the King of Glory still lives! Bishop says he is jus t a man. He explains he cries he bleeds and sometimes people get on his nerves just like they do ours.
V. What are the results of worship?
1. God is satisfied. He is pleased when we worship him.
2. The worshiper is satisfied. Psalm 42:1: 1As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. The deer that panted is used as a reference to the worshipper . God is not a taker. He adds value to us. If you let God occupy your space, he will take your takers away from you.
3. A worshiper gets direction and clarity. God will not let you worship him and not give you direction. Isaiah 6:1-3: 1In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.-A king’s train indicated the size of this kingdom. The earth is full of the glory. It is here right now and we need more of it. What we have to do is empty our self so you can take more of it in.
4. God will remind you how big your blessing is. Isaiah 6:4: 4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. – Your blessing is too big for a door.
5. God burned the sin out of him. Isaiah 6:5-8: 5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.-we look for volunteer, but if you around worshippers, they volunteer themselves. Find a worshipper, they will do it whether you like it or not. If a volunteer is not a worshipper they will quit as soon as you make them mad.
6. There is incredible power in worshipping God. God will strip you and purposely get you to a place to worship him. Trouble will bring you to your knees. Just when you think you can’t get any lower, God will put you on your face. It is then that you will worship him and your breakthrough will come. You would have never got that low, if trouble hadn’t come your way. Trouble brought you to your knees, but the acknowledgement of his worth will bring you to your face.
a. It was spoken over King Hezekiah’s life that he was going to die. After hearing that report, he turned to the wall and worshipped and talked to God and God gave him 15 more yrs, because worship is God’s soft spot. 2 Kings 20 : 1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake
b. God had closed up Hannah’s womb, she was worshiping so hard her mouth was moving, but no sound came out. The priest thought she was drunk. She told them she wasn’t drunk, but desperate for something from God. There priest told her that she could go in peace and as a result of her worship, Samuel was born. 12 As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her. 13 Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. 14 “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your wine!” 15 “Oh no, sir!” she replied. “I haven’t been drinking wine or anything stronger. But I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. 16 Don’t think I am a wicked woman! For I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.” 17 “In that case,” Eli said, “go in peace! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.” 18 “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad.19 The entire family got up early the next morning and went to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah. When Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her plea, 20 and in due time she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,[f] for she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”
c. There was a discourse over his Job’s head between God and the devil. Satan says he had been look to see what he could devour. God says I have been looking for somebody too. God says he was looking for worshippers. God asks had Satan considered his servant Job? God said he would put his reputation on the line with Job, because no matter what happens to Job, God knew Job would not fail to worship him. Satan says who wouldn’t serve God with all the blessing Job had, but he asked permission to take everything so he could prove Job would curse God. God gave Satan permission for Satan to take everything away but his soul. Job found himself in a Major recession so to speak. Everything was leaving even his children. Job 1:20: 20Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, -Job worshipped God and got 3 times what he originally had. Our response to God can’t be limited to praise. Job gave a response, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. The important thing to know here is that Job did not sin or charge God foolishly. If you ever get to the place where you worship him in spite of, you open yourself up for the greatest miracles of your life.