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Greg Gackle
April 21-22, 2012
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Worship Center
"Today I found my inner catfish." [CATFISH STORY] The truth is there is a life worth living for outside our natural boundaries. Heaven is worship. What is Worship? • Simply defined, worship is the act of ascribing worth to something. For us - it's ascribing ultimate worth to God. • our lives and everything we do can be an act of worship (Rom 12:1) that we are to offer God ourselves as living sacrifices…LIVING…and this is a spiritual act of worship. • Worship is not defined by the music we sing, or limited to the service we attend on the weekend. • We are living sacrifices..That means with our words, our works, our wonder, that all our ways would point to who God is, it's how we take in every sight, hear every sound, and move as His image-bearers through every day. Our spiritual enemy wants us dissatisfied.... Our spiritual enemy wants to convince us that we will be dissatisfied in heaven Revelation 13:6 - Satan's strategy is to blaspheme God, to slander His name and his dwelling place. We have a God-given ability to IMAGINE. 1 Cor. 2:10, God wants to reveal these things to us by his Spirit, some of the deepest things of God - and it is SO that we may understand what God has freely given us. Many of us worship when we see the results of God’s imagination in creation. Our Creator is worthy of our honor, fear & wonder. We believe breakthrough kind of worship is when we can be led by the Holy Spirit into speechless moments of awe and wonder - for who God is, for what He's done and is going to do. Then what could it possibly look like in Heaven? A great place to look is to those who have witnessed it. In scripture we find visions of heaven by people like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, and we're going to look specifically at John's vision in Revelation chapters 4&5
This vision is intense - but if we look into whats being revealed from this vision we can learn something about worship and it helps us get some handles on what its like in Heaven. A lot is going on that I can't go into great detail to explain in the time we have but in all this we see everything pointing to God. We learn that worship is centered around God - in an almost indescribable but powerful, jaw dropping, heart pounding, thunderous and dazzling epic display. These people cry out in praise because they are continually discovering new, exciting, awesome aspects of God's wisdom and power breaking fresh upon them. They are driven to praise God for who he is. There is music being made - new songs are being sung, there are creations that speak to God's power, patience, intelligence, swiftness and awareness of everything. It's diverse, interactive, & breath taking. And the climax of this whole experience comes when the Lamb who is Christ is seen standing at the center - whose sacrifice made a way for all nations to join him in this eternal party! Worship is an experience like no other. It leaves us in awe and wonder. And learning more about the One we worship. Worship is the heartbeat of heaven, the score, our common language - while we go deeper we also go higher and it never stops. "In Heaven worshipping God won't be restricted to a time posted on a sign, telling us when to start and stop. It will permeate our lives, energize our bodies, and fuel our imaginations." (Alcorn) In heaven it will be an eternity of learning and discovery. Filled with mind blowing fascination and a continual fulfillment of desire. Everything we desire and nothing we don't. We will worship God with every fabric of our new being. How will we worship? verse 13. When every living thing praised Jesus - how did they do it? WITH ALL THAT IS IN THEM. We shouldn't be concerned about experiencing God's presence AS MUCH as we should be concerned about God experiencing our presence. Let’s change our thinking - that we would move from one worship experience into the next. And your next worship experience is right outside those doors today starting in about 30 minutes, and then let’s reconvene same time next week and worship God together for who He is and what He’s done this week. [Jet Ski - Caden Story - writing name in ocean, “I Love You, God”] One of the things I hope we hold on tight to today is that: In heaven it's not a question of who we will worship, but a quest to know more deeply the One we worship.
We're on a quest for God and he's closer than you think - Jeremiah 29:13 - “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” John 4:23 - those who worship in Spirit and truth - the kind of worshippers God seeks. Star Trek Movie quote "it was like being inside of joy, as if joy was something tangible, and you could wrap yourself up in it like a blanket." How does that help us now? We live in this tension where our heart's affection and mind's attention is in conflict between dimensions. Thousands of years ago, one of man's biggest downfalls was grabbing a piece of wood carving it into a lesser god and worshipping it. It's called idolatry. It's when we worship the created as opposed to the Creator. And thousands of years later we still find a way to do the same thing, whether it's our things, cars, food, pleasure, money, entertainment, some of us can even be fixated on or worship our own pain or shame We also worship ourselves. We are creations and we have plenty that is telling us to worship ourselves rather than the One who made us. And the One who is also making a place for us. In Phil. 3 Paul reminds us that "our citizenship is in heaven, our citizenship! and we eagerly await our Savior. It's where we belong and it's Who we belong to. Is your heavenly citizenship obvious? Where is your worship center? Eugene Peterson states that our "Failure to worship God consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren…If there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose." Worshipping God realigns our thinking/behavior/purpose - Specifically acknowledging Christ as the center of everything we do. Christ at the center! - in need of forgiveness - Jesus - of every financial decision, Jesus - overcoming addictions - Jesus - finding mercy when we deserve judgement - Jesus
- in need of healing - Jesus - in need of refuge and hope - Jesus - controlling our words - Jesus - knowing who’s in control - Jesus - leading a company - Jesus - paralyzed by fear - Jesus - losing your job - Jesus - needing a miracle - Jesus - saving a marriage - Jesus - who to worship - Jesus - to reach this city - Jesus - to reach the nations - Jesus - for divine breakthrough - Jesus - for the times we forget & the grace we need - Jesus - when we feel worthless - Jesus - when we just don't know - Jesus - when we are weak - Jesus - when we are strong - Jesus - when we are tired of saying Jesus - Jesus - when doubt creeps in - Jesus - when the enemy has a stronghold - Jesus - when life is shorter than you planned - Jesus - in everything - Jesus.
So back to the pond. Can you see where the best bread is? And are you willing to go there? There is a life worth living for outside of your natural boundaries. Jesus said “I am the bread of life”. Broken so that we would be saved so that we would be healed.