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Ingleside Presbyterian Church A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America |
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Ingleside Presbyterian Church A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America |
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Little Christopher saw three large plaques on the wall in the lobby of his church and he asked his mom what they were. She said, "Those are folks who have died in the service." He asked, "Which one? The 8:15 or the 10:40 service?" (I have actually seen people die while at church before.) As we begin this New Year, I want to talk about worship and coming before God. Is. 6:1-8 "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high & lifted up, & the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, & with two he covered his feet, & with two he flew. And one called to another & said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, & the house was filled with smoke. And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, & I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth & said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away & your sins atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, & who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’" There is a beautiful five-stage process of worship that Isaiah describes in this passage. Two weeks ago at 10:40 worship, one of our elders prayed that we would not merely relegate our worship to one hour on Sunday morning. Instead, all of our life is to be lived in worship before God. In other words, worship is a lifestyle. The first two verses of our passage describe step one in the lifestyle of worship.
"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord…" It is interesting that Isaiah pinpoints the time as the "year that King Uzziah died." King Uzziah was a strong and basically, a good king. The people had found security in him. It was that year, when Isaiah was feeling an emptiness of a lack of leadership for his country, that he went to the temple to worship. And when he went to worship, he saw the Lord. All significant worship begins by seeing the Lord, because if you don’t see Him, it is impossible to worship Him. When you come to Ingleside, what do you see? Your friends? You sit in your seat and most of you gravitate to the same area of the worship center each week. (It allows me to mentally check roll that way.) You see your friends and it’s great to nod to them and worship with them and visit with them after worship until the preacher turns the lights off. But, when you come, do you see the Lord? It’s wonderful when you leave and say, "The music was great. Bill had a pretty good message today. At least, I stayed awake." But did we see the Lord? Worship begins when we focus only on Him. If we go through an entire worship hour without seeing Him, then we have not begun to worship. It is highly probable to come and sing songs about Him and hear messages about Him and never come face to face with Him. Do you know what last Thursday was? January 8th? It was a number of Inglesiders’ birthdays, including my wife’s. But it was Elvis’ birthday. He would’ve been 74. Years ago, a die-hard Elvis fan by the name of Dennis Wise wrote this article for The Boston Globe: "I loved Elvis. I followed him his whole career. I have every album that he recorded. I’ve seen every movie that he ever made. I once even bought some boots when I was in junior high school that looked like his. My classmates called them ‘fruit boots’ but I didn’t care. They look like Elvis. Later, I got a face lift and a haircut contoured like his. I’ve won Elvis look-alike contests and I wanted him to notice, so I would storm the stage during and after his concerts so he would notice me. I don’t think he ever saw me. I have ticket stubs from the concerts, Elvis clippings from the programs, and I even have some Elvis pillows from Japan. Presley was my idol My only regret was that I never really saw him. I mean, really saw him. I went to his concerts, but there was no contact. I once even climbed the walls around Graceland to catch a glimpse of him. I think it might have been him that I saw walking through the house as I looked through with my binoculars, but I never really saw him. It’s funny. All the effort I put in following him…and I never could seem to get close." Besides the fact that this guy REALLY needs professional help, I know folks who come to church every Sunday and they sing songs about God and they talk about Him and they may even make great prayers with His name in there, and they listen to messages about Him, but they never make contact with Him. When Isaiah went into the temple that day, it wasn’t "business as usual." That day, he saw the Lord! The moment we see the Lord, we begin to really come into the worship experience. Here is what happens when we begin to see Him: Once we see Him, we begin to realize His holiness. Verses 3 and 4 describe those who are around Him as they sing about His faithfulness and they begin to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts..." This is the only instance in Scripture where any attribute of God is repeated three times. Not, "faithful, faithful, faithful…" or "almighty, almighty, almighty." Now, He is all those things and more, but when they looked at Him that day they said, "Holy, holy, holy." When we really see Him and His holiness, all of the other things begin to fade away. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." Seeing God’s holiness does a special work in our lives because we live in such an unholy, unhealthy world. God’s holiness is like a magnet that draws us because everything else we see in life is so disappointing and discouraging and dirty. Isaiah said, "Look at God. He’s holy, holy, holy." Are there ever times in worship when you want to get down on your knees and say, "God, only You are worthy to be praised." Everything else in life is disappointing. Everything else in life is fleeting. Everything else in life pulls us down, but when we see the holiness of God, there is something that just lifts our spirits up to Him and makes us want to be like Him. Folks, that is worship. Remember Jesus questioning His disciples with "Who do you think that I am?" Peter said, "I’ll tell You who You are. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" Jesus looked at Simon Peter and said, "Pete, flesh & blood did not reveal this to you." He was saying, "You cannot learn this from somebody else. What you know about Me, you learned directly from the Spirit of God." As a human, I am not able to REVEAL God to you. We all point to Him, but only He can reveal Himself. He may reveal himself during the message or the music. Music is not the preliminaries here. It’s not just something we do to fill the space before I preach. There are times when God comes to us through the music. There are Sundays I am preaching and I am secretly thinking, "Any time, Lord, any time." Please come and have your heart ready to worship. Listen to Christian music on the way to church. Have your heart ready to listen to the voice of God. Now, point three is a natural flipside of realizing God’s holiness. A prison chaplain asked an inmate: "What was the cause of your downfall?" The prisoner replied, "I was ruined by untold wealth." "What do you mean by that?" the chaplain asked. "Wealth I should have told about on my income tax forms." As soon as Isaiah saw a holy God, do you know what he did? He said, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips & I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips." When we see the holiness of God, all of sudden we see our sinfulness. We see our inadequacies. We realized "all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God." If we don’t truly see God, we will use folks around us as our measuring sticks. Instead of comparing our lives to our holy God, we compare ourselves to others and Paul reminds us that when we compare ourselves with others, we are not wise. (2 Cor. 10:12) We must keep our eyes upon Jesus, "the Author & Finisher of our faith." Upon that cross of Jesus mine eyes at times can see The very dying form of One who suffered there for me; And from my smitten heart with tears, two wonders I confess— The wonders of redeeming love & my unworthiness. There is something about coming into the presence of God that humbles us and gives us a recognition of our unworthiness. God’s presence begins to melt us and we begin to confess our sin, which leads us to the fourth step. In verses 6-7 Isaiah describes a Seraphim, a six-winged angelic being. Two wings covered the angel’s face, and two wings covered its feet, displaying humility before God. It flew with the other two wings and served as a spokesman for God in this passage. The seraph told Isaiah that his sins had been forgiven. In verse three, the seraphim are praising God. When we come to grips with our sinfulness, there comes a time in worship when we are lifted up above all of that. Worship has a tendency to lift us up above all of the circumstances of life. You may walk into this room on Sunday morning consumed about your job or your kids or your bills. It’s easy to walk in and have those thoughts take command of our minds. But when we focus on God, He begins to lift us up. When we begin to sing "How Great is Our God" or "Beautiful Lord" or "Great is Thy Faithfulness" we begin to be lifted up above all of those heartaches and we say, "Yes, Lord. You are Lord over my finances, my relationships, my family, my concerns and my health." Once we really see Him, that happens. And the last thing that should happen in worship should be… A pastor was going over the church rolls with his elders. After many of the names were the initials FBPO. His clerk of session asked, "Please explain the meaning of these initials." The pastor replied, "They mean, ‘For Burial Purposes Only.’" The response of a real worship experience is a commitment to God. If you have worship without commitment, you’ve never had worship. When you and I see God in His fullness our first response should be like Isaiah’s: "Here am I! Send me!" Take me, Lord. I’m available. No wonder Isaac Watts wrote: When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died. My richest gain I count but loss & pour contempt on all my pride. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. If you come into the presence of God, you will make commitments to God, because TRUE worship turns our heart into servant hood to the One who paid such a price for us. There is absolutely nothing we could ever do to pay Him back. Application Steps:
I want to use the next several weeks focusing on worship. I trust that this series will strengthen our walk with our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, daily, as we depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Please pray with me. Please visit us at our next worship service.
In Christ,
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