True Worship - Zac Poonen, Feb. 13, 2011

praise the Lord this weekend I've felt I should speak on the subject of true worship and in the three weekends that I'm going to speak on subsequently also I want to make certain things clear because it's the truth that sets us free that was a great help to me in my younger days when I found so many Christian churches using the same Bible and preaching different truths all claiming to have the truth now the thing that helped me with what Jesus said in John 8:32 you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free and what the Lord spoke to me from that verse is that if you understand the truth correctly on any subject it'll make you a little more free anything that brings you into bondage cannot be the truth the truth always makes us free from sin free from fear free from anxiety free from becoming servants of men free from every human tradition free to live and to serve God so the truth about worship is very important to understand because that's what we're going to do in all eternity worship God we're not going to preach there we're not going to pray but we're going to worship God and so Jesus spoke about true worshipers he also spoke about empty worship I want to show you those two verses first first of all in mark chapter 7 Mark's Gospel chapter 7 he says in verse 6 and 7 jesus said these people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me honoring God with our lips they you know they sang and praise the Lord a lot in the in the Old Testament times the Book of Psalms indicates that but their heart was not in it it was with words and that's very very true of a lot of Sunday morning what is called praise and worship this people honor me with their lips but their heart is far away from me and in the next verse it says verse 7 in vain do they worship me that means their worship is empty the music is nice the instruments play well the voices are great but their worship is empty in spite of all that they're singing so that's what we don't want is it possible that the Lord will lay such a charge against us I don't want to hear that and in contrast to that Jesus spoke in John chapter 4 and verse 23 to the Samaritan woman he spoke about a day that an hour that was coming John 4:23 an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeks such to be his worshipers it hasn't yet come notice what he said it is coming means up until that time right from the time of Adam nobody could worship the father in spirit man is body soul and spirit then how were people worshiping in the Old Testament in body clapping raising their hands raising their voice that's body in soul that is with mind emotions feelings great but there's another part of man the spirit and they couldn't worship in spirit jesus said but the are is now coming when the true worshipers this is worshiping truth in the New Covenant will worship in spirit and I've discovered that most people don't taught anything about it that hour came on the day of Pentecost but he also said it now is now is meant the beginning of it is already here because Jesus was here so Jesus was there he was worshipping the father in spirit and truth the first human being ever to do it and he paved the way open the way for others from the day of Pentecost onward so the Spirit of God come in and make us really worship the father in spirit and in truth there's an Old Testament picture of this in the tabernacle the tabernacle had three parts you know tabernacle means dwelling place man is the dwelling place of God so that tabernacle was a picture of man and the tabernacle had three parts just like we are body soul and spirit it had an outer court that was visible to everybody like the body and it had two hidden parts called the under the tent called a holy place most holy place similar to our soul and spirit that are hidden and between the holy place in the most holy place in that Old Testament Tabernacle was a thick veil indicating that nobody could get into God's presence and God didn't dwell in the outer court he didn't dwell in the holy place he dwelled in the most holy place nobody could go there when Jesus died that veil was rent and the way into the most holy was open the way into our spirit was opened so that the Holy Spirit could come and dwell within this is the significance of the rending of a veil so that now we can worship God in the spirit now this is not just a beautiful picture it's something that can change our whole life if you can believe that God desires the best for you there's a lovely verse in Jeremiah 29:11 which says I know the plans I have for you God says plans for your good and your welfare it's very important that all of us recognize that every single thing God is commanded in his word is for our good the plans he has for us are for our very best we can never make a better plan for our lives than the one God Himself has made and when he teaches us to worship it's for our good let me show you in other words that Jesus spoke this time to the devil in Matthew chapter 4 in Matthew chapter 4 we read of Satan coming to Jesus in Matthew 4 9 and telling him in the temptation in the wilderness he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory all the things the world had to offer today the devil offers many things to believers think of that he showed them to Jesus whatever was available in his time today he shows us all the entertainment world and money and everything else that the glory of the world in those days whatever was available the devil showed all that to Jesus and said I'll give you all of this if you will fall down and worship Me Matthew 4 verse 9 all you got to do is worship me and there we see what the devil longed for from the time he was created when he was created he wasn't created as the devil he was created we read in his ego 28 as the highest cherub the anointed cherub the head of the angels leading the angels the millions of cherubs and serifs and angels in the worship of Almighty God he was the leader he was beautiful wise leading everyone in worship of God and into his heart came a desire I want people to worship me I don't want everyone to worship God and you read that in Isaiah chapter 14 that's the meaning of his saying in Isaiah 14 I will be like the Most High I want to be like God where people admire me and worship me and as soon as that thought came into his heart for the first time in this universe sin was born and immediately he was cast out of God's presence and the most beautiful of God's creation in a moment became the ugliest of God's creation in a moment that highest angel became the devil what was his crime it wasn't murder it wasn't adultery it wasn't telling lies it wasn't the things that we normally consider Grievous serious sins it wasn't even hypocrisy it was the desire to be worshipped by others the desire to be the center of attraction the desire to draw people to oneself instead of to God and to Christ Christendom is full of it there are preachers pastors who got that spirit of the devil where they draw people to themselves they attract people to themselves instead of being pointers to Christ who take the glory to themselves that belongs only to God that was the origin of sin and it's in all of us it came to us through our parents it came to us from Adam and Jesus came to save us from that to make us worshippers of God do you see how important worship is this was the issue on which sin in which sin originated and so when Jesus came the devil was making one last attempt to get Jesus to worship him and do you think the devil tried to get Jesus to worship him he won't try that with you and me you got to be really conceited to think that he won't try that with you but he doesn't come with horns and hooves he comes as an angel of light and so when he get tries to get you to worship him he's not going to be directly he's going to be indirectly if he can get your worship that's fine if he can indirectly get Debut to bow your knee to him that's fine the Bible says that Satan is the god of this world I don't know whether you know this Satan controls the business world Satan controls the entertainment world Satan controls the programs on television the movies that are made in different places ultimately the god of this world and a lot of the books that are written children's books that are written like Harry Potter and things like that and many other things which you innocently allow your children to read there's a god of this world who's trying to control the minds of people and he starts with children to get them ultimately to bow down to him I'll give you whatever you want do you want entertainment I'll give it to you I want you to bow down to me that's what I'm always wanted the devil says I want people to worship me I don't want them to worship God this is the great issue that's been right there from the beginning of time and if you understand this you'll be very very careful never to give that worship that belongs to God to the devil it's a very important issue it's not just a question of coming and singing praise to God here for one and off hours or one hour and saying well I worship God we haven't worship is an issue of the heart it's worshiping in the spirit not just with words and with our mind and emotions in the spirit where I give God his rightful place and if that place how does the devil make us worship Him by taking away God from the center of our lives and making something else could be television could be innocent things like sport and music all these are good things sport and music very good but it can become a God in your life where it becomes so important that it crowds out God can you think of the early days when you were born again think back to the time when you were first converted when you gave your life to Christ just stop for a moment and think how it was then how you were ready to give up anything for him how we were willing to give up certain things that YouTube MIT took time you cut out certain things in your daily routine so that you would have time to read the Word of God what's happened to that has time we just spent studying the word beam now you say you're busy who made you so busy the devil has succeeded in crowding God slowly out of your life because something else has become your God it could be sport it could be watching sport endlessly on television it could be music but and the devil says is nothing wrong with that is Christian music or choir practice wonderful but you don't have time to to walk with God now anymore you don't have time to read God's Word to get to know him but you did have once you think your progress because you know more of the scriptures because you're more active in so-called Church work but you don't realize you become less of a worshipper and that's why your life is up and down and up and down and up and down when it should have been a slow steady progress to greater Christlikeness we need to understand the reason we have stopped worshipping God so I want to show you something of what the scripture says about worship the first time that worship is mentioned in Scripture Genesis chapter 22 the first time the word worship occurs in the Bible is in Genesis 22 and it's always interesting to study the first time any word occurs in scripture and here is a story of Abraham he's about 125 years old now we don't know his exact age but around that age and it says here on Genesis 22:1 that God tested Abraham 50 years earlier he had tested him by asking him to leave his family leave his country and to go out where God called him and he had obeyed the test was will you put me first in your life to worship God is to make him central and everything in our life you remember what Jesus said was the first commandment thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all my heart all thy soul and all thy mind if you think of that as a circle there's no part of that circle that's got to be given to anybody else it's got to be God all the way and then if I love my wife has got to be through God if I do my work it's got to be with God being in the center of my life he must be everything to me and then I do everything on earth that's that's the true worshipper then everything God is central he's number one to put God number one does not mean just reading the Bible for half an hour in the morning no it means that throughout the day my whole life is governed by the fact that I am a child of God and I live by divine principles I'm never going to say anything that I will not say if Jesus were standing right next to me I'm never going to talk to my wife in any way that I would wouldn't talk to her if Jesus was standing right there or do I order your husband or anyone I wouldn't do anything in the office that I wouldn't do if Jesus were sitting right next to me I wouldn't watch a television program that if gee I couldn't watch if Jesus was sitting right next to me this is what it means to have God in the center of our life it's not just a question of reading the scripture for a few minutes and easing my conscience saying I read my Bible today that's not the meaning of putting God first it means God is central in everything I do from morning till night the Bible says whatever you do whether you eat or drink do all for the glory of God so God tested Abraham and 50 years later he's testing him again because you and I know how easy it is as I said earlier to drift from that first love and devotion to Christ and where other things take the place that God should have in our life and that's why God constantly tests us and he tested Abraham when he was 50 years old with the same test am I still first in your life once upon I tested he once upon a time I tested you in relation to your parents am I going to be first in your life Abraham or your relatives in order of the Kali's are you willing to leave them and follow me he said yes Lord and he followed later on we read in Genesis 13 there was a conflict between Abraham and lot their servants over property and God tested Abraham again let me see what you're going to do now when there's a conflict over property am I going to be first in your life and let him that you refuse to fight with him and he passed the test he told Lord you take what you like I'll take what you don't want God tested Abraham many pass the test now 50 years later he's testing him and again the same way this time it's his son the son whom he loves he says take your son genesis 22:2 take him out to mount moriah and kill him and God gives him three days to walk up to Mount Moriah so that he can think about it God doesn't want you to decide in a hurry he didn't tell him to take him there around the corner and kill him in the next 5 minutes because some things we do in a in the moment of emotional excitement and afterwards he'll regret it and God gave Abraham three days to think about it that's why he told him to go three days journey away to Mount Moriah as he was walking down the thought was in his mind was this is it worth serving a god like this who asks me for the only thing I really have really that I love the one I love even more than I love my wife Isaac and at the end of those three days Abram says it's worth it God's going to be first in my life as he was fifty years ago he's going to be first my life today even if I have to lose my only son and they come to Mount Moriah and then the third day it says in verse 4 that Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place and he calls the young men who had come with him Genesis 22 verse 5 and says to them stay here with the donkey Genesis 22 verse 5 I and the lad will go up there what are we going to do we will worship that's the first time the word worship comes in the Bible we will worship that means when I offered to God that which is most precious in my life and I don't know what that is in your life right now could be a number of things that day for Abraham it was Isaac he said God this is my worship it's not just singing a few songs to you and then going away and living my own life no it's the surrender of that which is most precious to me where you are number one in my life and I'm willing to give it out I want to ask you is there thing in your life which is so precious to you that you find it difficult to give up because you always say well it's not a sinful thing Isaac wasn't sinful was he he was a healthy boy and was in fact it was God's gift and he was asked to give up even that God may ask us sometimes to give up that which he's given to us Isaac was God's gift but even that which God's given to us can become more precious than God himself and that becomes an idol and we say there's nothing sinful here I know there's nothing sinful there there's nothing sinful in watching clean sport on television but it can be a god to you and you you can't give it up it could be music it could be money it could be something in your business where it's become so important you it's crowded out God I don't know what it is it could be a girlfriend or a boyfriend it's crowded out the vision of God from your life and when you look back to the days when you first converted it wasn't like that Jesus was everything to you you've stopped being a worshiper that's the first thing I want you to see the second place where we see worship which is also in the beginning of time beginning of human history as it were is in the book of Joe now Joe is the first book that God wrote because it's a poetic book it comes in the middle because the Bible's been arranged like that but job is the first book that God wrote because Genesis was written by Moses 1,500 years before Christ where his job lived before Abraham and all those details that are written in the book of Job the detailed discourse and conversation that he had with his friends could never have been written by anybody other than Jove himself and it's the only book in the Bible by the way which has no connection with Abraham Isaac or Jacob so there's every indication that this is the first book that God wrote and in the very first book in the very first chapter you read about a man a man of God who learned to worship now isn't that significant that the very first book that God wrote he's teaching us about a man who worshiped him and the first book that's in our Bible in Genesis also you read about a man that worshiped him you see how important it is because way back in the beginning of time as I told you the great conflict between Lucifer whatever his name was we don't know his real name and God was the issue of worship we have to settle this issue is God going to be number one all the time in my life central to me more important than even my ministry more important than anything at all more important than my family and everything else that's the question and here we read that God allowed Satan to test Jo again the test is will he worship God when he loses everything this time he loses Abraham didn't lose his son but job lost all his 10 children all his business in just a few moments once servant after the other comes to him with the news your children have all died your businesses have collapsed your property is burnt up I've never heard of anyone who suffered like this but imagine if you got news like this one day that all that you valued your family your property your business your bank account everything is gone what a job do it says in job chapter 1 verse 20 Joh chapter 1 and verse 20 job arose when he heard the news torez robe in shape is that he had sorrow we naturally have sorrow and we hear such news but he didn't lose his senses he bowed down and he worshiped he bowed with his head to the ground and worshiped he acknowledged God see that that's the meaning of it's very in Eastern culture it is very clear when you bow down your head and touch the ground you're worshiping someone it's a symbolic act of submission to the one whom you worship and that is why I have so much against what we see on television and these meetings nowadays and a lot of peace preachers who lay hands on people and they fall flat on the ground they're showing their feet to God it's the opposite of worship I mean coming from an Eastern culture it's crystal clear to me it may not be to you but in in Eastern culture if you show your feet to anybody that's the biggest insult you can give him correct a respect is by bowing down and it's amazing what the devil does get all these Christians fall and show their feet to God and devil has a big laugh it can't touch me even if I go to such a meeting because I have a promise in the Old Testament that says a thousand will fall on one side and ten thousand on the other but it won't come near me that's in Psalm 91 and I have a promise in the New Testament that says Jesus can keep me from falling we worship God we bow down and say God whatever you allow in my life I accept it let God take away my family and take away my children let him take away my job let him take away everything there are certain things that are still true when I've lost everything in the world there's still certain things that are true with job did not know he didn't have a Bible he didn't have the Holy Spirit he didn't know that Jesus died for it would die for his sins he didn't know anything that we know he had no fellowship no meetings no church nothing but he could worship God how much more we we we who understand so much because we know that when we have lost everything like the old saying goes when you've got nothing left but God you'll find that God is more than enough it's absolutely true when you've got nothing left but God you'll find that he's more than enough because there are certain things when I've lost everything that are still true God is still on the throne that hasn't changed that's never going to change he's still my father that's not going to change and the vertically father's know how to give good things to their children my Heavenly Father will give me all that I need definitely not all that I want thank God he doesn't give us all that we want it would destroy us he gives us all that we need my God shall supply all your need that's that promise doesn't change my sins are all forgiven that hasn't changed Christ death on the cross that's taking care of all the guilt of my past that hasn't changed the devil was defeated 2,000 years ago that hasn't changed Christ is coming back in glory I'm going to spend eternity with him the most important things haven't lived in life haven't changed maybe I've lost a few things on earth so what even their God is in control and today we have greater reason to worship even if you have lost everything because we have this wonderful promise which job didn't have Romans 8:28 which says God will make all of these things work together for your good I praise the Lord for that so because we have this assurance we can much more than job fall down and worship God and continue to worship God now I'll tell you we can go higher than job you remember what Jesus said about John the Baptist that he was the greatest man under the Old Covenant born of women Matthew 11:11 but he said the least one in the kingdom of heaven can rise higher than him I can rise higher than Jobe in this way job could not continue to worship God by the time you come to chapter 3 his endurance is worn out and he starts complaining and criticizing and saying God why have you treated me like this and I mean so faithful to you and I've done this for you and that for you and you're still targeting me I was firing your arrows at me he couldn't continue but don't blame him he didn't have fellowship he didn't have the Holy Spirit he didn't have a Bible he knew nothing about Jesus Christ so you cannot compare yourself with him today we can rise higher than job in this sense that we can continue in worshipping god without going up and down like Joe if you read the book of Job his life was an up-and-down experience he'd worship God one moment they say I can accept good and bad from from God and the next day he'd be complaining to God and a few days later he said yeah even if God kills me I'll trust him and then he'd go down in the dumps again and then he'd come up and say I know my redeemer lives but then he go down in the dumps again this is the experience of many Christians this is a mark that a person is not living filled with the Holy Spirit even if he speaks in tongues or whatever he does if he's really filled with the Holy Spirit he will not be going up and down and up and down Paul said thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ I want to tell you my dear brothers and sisters it is not God's will for you to have an up-and-down experience that is Old Covenant it may be your experience but it's an Old Covenant experience the devil's cheated you and robbed you of your birthright in Christ your birthright in Christ is described in the New Testament words like this thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph we can always rejoice we can be free from anxiety but that will be true only if we learn the secret of worshiping God bowing down and saying God you will care for me even if everything even if I lose everything if I see God's kingdom first in His righteousness all that I need will be added to me I prove that for 50 years in the poorest villages in India poor people who have poorer than anybody sitting here in debt and as I've taught them to seek God's kingdom first in his righteous and as I've seen how God's provided all their needs and they become free from debt God can do that he's done that if he's done that in a poor country without Social Security without food stamps nothing why can't he do it here we must trust God we must learn to be worshipers most important then let me say finally one more thing we saw how it was at the beginning with Abraham and Joe won't go to the end of the Bible in Revelation and chapter 4 we read about how these elders in heaven fall down and worship God revelation 4 and verse 10 it says the 24 elders revelation 4:10 fall down and worship Him who lives forever and ever and they cast their crowns before the throne saying thou alone art worthy this is worship where they refuse to take credit for anything that's the meaning of casting their crowns before God saying Dowell oh not worthy I mean they're given a crown will be given crowns when for being faithful on earth jesus said that I've come I will come quickly and my reward is with me but we're going to cast it down before Jesus and say no Lord I don't deserve that it's all you that's worship where I recognize that I have nothing that God didn't give me I have no ability that God didn't give me if I exercise an ability and people are blessed by it I cast it down before God and say god that's you it's not me you see in 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 1 Corinthians 4 in verse 7 a wonderful verse what do you have that you did not receive and if you received it how can you boast as if you didn't receive it even a simple thing like looking at your pretty face in the mirror and admiring it comparing yourself with someone else say thank God I'm better-looking than him or her or secretly congratulating yourself that you're intelligent and not dumb like the other fellow sitting there you're not a worshiper anymore you haven't cast your crown before Jesus no your crown of intelligence is sitting on your head you haven't learned to cast it down before that's why your life is up and down you may be very clever your business may be doing well but your spiritual life is in the dumps most of the time why is that because you're not a worshipper God wants you to give him the glory for everything you have have you prospered in your business give the glory to God you could have been born mentally challenged physically challenged and you'd have been like a vegetable all your life recognize that everything you have is from God you know when the first baby was born in this in the world we read in Genesis 4:1 that Eve named him came now I was reading it in the Living Bible and it says there even named him came saying meaning I have created I have and said I have created a man-child with the help of God she was pretty proud because till then only God had created a man Adam but now lo and behold she found a baby coming out of her body said I have created and she passed on that spirit to Cain and he grew up to be a murderer a lot of parents pass on that spirit of arrogance to their children what we can accomplish and she learned a lesson when he murdered her second son then she had another son where's 25 and I read that in the Living Bible it says he named him she named him Seth meaning granted or she was humble now God has granted me we can look at our things as our accomplishments or as God's gifts things that God has granted us or things that we have accomplished it all depends on whether we are worshipers or not may God help us to learn this lesson to worship Him in spirit and in truth let's pray spar heads in prayer if the Lord has spoken to you in any particular area that's the area where you need to yield yourself to God and to say to him Lord there was a time in my life when I first knew you when you were everything to me but I've drifted from there many things have taken the place that you should have in my life but I want you to come back to that place Lord I want you to be central in my life I want to love you with all my heart soul strength and mind and anything you want I'm ready to yield upon the altar I give my body to you it's a living sacrifice every part of me I want to be a worshipper in Jesus name Amen Thank You amen

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Keywords: alcf, abundant life, true worship, zac poonen, sermon, preaching, message, gospel, christianity

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Length: 36min 26sec (2186 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 13 2011