The Body Beautiful
Part 1
Created To Worship
Last week
I would consider a background
As to why this sermon series is essential
Today we will start this series
By talking about
How the Body was created to Worship
After last week’s service
I had the opportunity to speak with many of you
And I appreciate all your concern and outpourings of love
However,
unfortunately,
I believe that the Lord was grieved even more
After, Because many of us still were looking on
What I said from a fleshly, earthly perspective
Worrying that I felt like leaving
Or giving up
But God was speaking to you
About YOU
About your Worship
About your approaching His throne
In the bible we have many examples
Of how God allowed his messengers
To go through different painful experiences
So that they would have the heart of God
The best example of this is the prophet
Hosea
Hosea’s prophetic ministry begins with his marriage.
In fact, the first thing that he is commanded to do
as a prophet of God is to marry.
Somehow Hosea’s marriage
is to be an important part of his prophetic ministry.
This would not be so striking,
were it not for the character of the woman
whom the LORD commands him to marry.
She is to be a harlot!
The prophet is to marry a prostitute!
Hosea’s marriage is to symbolize Yahweh’s relationship
with adulterous Israel.
Hosea’s painful marriage will be a visible symbol
to the nation of Israel
of their adultery against their rightful husband, Yahweh.
Amazingly, verse three shows Hosea
obeying the Word of the LORD.
He marries Gomer.
a prostitute when Hosea married her.
But the book of Hosea is not primarily about Hosea and his marriage,
it is ultimately about God and His relationship
to His covenant people, Israel.
Hosea was commanded to marry a prostitute
because that is the kind of wife
which Israel had become to Yahweh.
By combining elements of Baal worship
with the elements of Yahweh worship
commanded in the Law,
Israel was engaging in spiritual adultery
Last week
I attempted to describe to you
The spiritual battle we are fighting
And as Pastor
I see this battle clearly
Because the Lord showed it to me
Many times over these past 3 years
Yes we need your prayers
And Yes we need your support and care
But the Word last week
Was for you to see beyond
the horizon you have established in your life
to see beyond your own ideas of worship and praise
Some of you understand and believe
That God wants more for us
And for this church
And for this area.
But knowing it is not enough
I cannot take you to the place God wants you
I can only lead by example
And teach - exhort and encourage
What God is trying to show us
Is that He desires to manifest in our presence
If you feel this too
Then guess what -
God is telling you to step out of your comfort zone
Stop waiting for someone else to break out in worship
You just enter in -
And worship as God shows you
We cannot think we know it all
That will stop revival in its tracks
We cannot think we are instrumental in God’s moving
That too will stop revival
The only thing we can do
Is enter in
Pursue God with all that in us.
You see – Hunger is not manufactured
Hunger takes time to develop
It requires expending all your energy
All your reserves
And realizing that the only food you require is
God Himself
Jesus said it best
John4:32-
But Jesus told them, "I have food that you don't know anything about."
His disciples started asking each other, "Has someone brought him something to eat?" Jesus said: My food is to do what God wants!
Some misunderstood what was said
I was not saying that God wanted us to worship
A certain way
What the Lord was saying and obviously I was not clear
Is that God desires us to be passionate about worship
Passion is expressed differently depending on
Who we are
However,
Passion is passion
So if you get passionate about something
And you are not as passionate in worshiping God
You may have a disconnect about who God is
And what He requires
This disconnect comes from our traditional upbringing
First of all
Yes God is Holy
And should be reverenced
But you cannot find too many places in the bible
Where you see pious reverence as we view it today
In most traditional churches
The Apostles for instance never once prayed the
So called “Lord’s Prayer”
You never even find a reference to them praying at all
While Jesus was with them
Why?
In John 16
notice the following:
John 16:23-27
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
The disciples didn’t pray!
All “praying” while Jesus was with them
were requests made directly to Jesus,
who inter-mediated to God the Father for them;
thus, there was no need to pray.
However, after Jesus left them,
the apostles prayed to God in Jesus’ name:
Acts 1:13-14
And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphæus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Acts 2:42
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Acts 6:4
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
Tradition has us believe that we have to
Come before God
With some sort of head down version of piety
When in actuality
He desires that we come boldly
parrhēsia
par-rhay-see'-ah
all out spokenness, that is, frankness, bluntness, assurance: - bold (X -ly, -ness, -ness of speech), confidence,
The real breakthrough in relationship with God
Comes when we are pushing through
Due to an overwhelming hunger for God
And His presence
There are 2 distinct forms of giving adoration to God
One is Praise
The other is worship
The difference is stark
And the reason for each is unique
Praise ushers in the presence of God
Did you hear that?
Praise ushers in the presence of God
Praise acknowledges our hunger for God
It is Hunger
that is lacking in the church today
We, from tradition
Believe that if we are humble and in awe of God
That that is enough to usher Him in
It is not!
all examples in the bible show that hunger
must proceed the presence
It is the hunger
That is expressed with exuberance
With intensity
With all that we are
It’s Hunger
That draws the presence of God
The presence of God is 2 fold
He is present with us all
He is in us by His Holy Spirit
God is with us BY His Holy Spirit
But the manifest presence of God
Is not the same
It is His ACTUAL presence
His Glory manifesting
In such a way that
It is not personal any longer
It is recognized by all
It is seen and felt by all
Now please listen carefully
In every service you can have people
Who feel the presence of God
And those who do not
Why is that?
Because God is with us
Emmanuel “God with us”
Jesus in dwelling us
Now what you may not know is this
Although God the Holy Spirit lives in us
The fullness of God
Dwells in us
Ephesians 3:19,
“to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
plērōma
play'-ro-mah
From G4137; repletion or completion, that is, (subjectively) what fills (as contents, supplement, copiousness, multitude), or (objectively) what is filled (as container, performance, period): - which is put in to fill up, piece that filled up, fulfilling, full, fullness.
But the fullness is not all of who God is
That happens when
The Glory of God is made manifest among us
Now here is the essence of today’s message
The definition of revival
is that everyone
Whether they know God or not
Recognize Him
Feel Him
Sense Him
And see His power manifested
Everyone present
Knows that God is in the house
There is a significant difference
Between the manifested presence of God
And His daily presence with us
We could not live
In this human form
In His presence
We would be overwhelmed
That’s why when
His presence is made manifest
People fall, shake, tremble, stutter
Groan, cry, scream,
Because it overwhelms us
To see a revival
A true presence of God
Manifested here on earth
It requires radical praise and radical worship
The sacrifice of this type of adoration
Requires one to forget self
And focus entirely on Him
Now why do we want this
REVIVAL
Changes you and your family
Forever!
The result of such adoration
Is The Lord moving
In His Manifested Glory
Among all those present
That’s why when Jesus walked
ALL were healed
Everyone in His presence was affected
Did you ever wonder why
Thousands follow Jesus?
Because of the Manifested presence of God
Immanuel – God was with them
They didn’t understand it
But they knew something was different
It changed them forever
The apostles were changed forever,
Christianity was birthed
Because – REVIVAL was started
The Manifest Presence of God
Brought REVIVAL
Hunger for God is not
The traditional worship we grew up with
That type of worship
Is what’s called “soul worship”
Soul Worship - hardly ever changes anyone
But the Manifest Glory of God
Changes everyone
That’s why it’s called REVIVAL
In revival you get this curious,
strange mixture
of great conviction of sin and great joy,
a great sense of the terror of the Lord,
and great thanksgiving and praise
all at once
Always in a revival
there is a divine disorder.
Some are groaning and agonizing under conviction,
others praising God for our great salvation.
All this leads to crowded and prolonged meetings.
Time seems to be forgotten.
People seem to have entered into eternity.
A meeting may start at 7 in the evening,
and it may not end until daybreak the next morning
with nobody aware of the passing of the hours.
They did not have to provide coffee.
When the Holy Ghost organizes things,
time, the body, and the needs of the flesh are all forgotten.
Worship
Recognizes His presence and is humbled
And we are brought to our knees (figuratively as well as some times literally)
Even falling prostrate before God
Because of His presence
We must learn the difference
And participate in both praise and worship
For both are life changing
And both bring us to a place
of deeper commune with Him
Worship in the bible is described as follows:
The Psalmist says, "Rejoice in the LORD, 0 ye righteous; For praise is comely for the upright." (Psalm 33:1).
This word "comely" in the Hebrew language means, "suitable", "beautiful" and "becoming". The definition of the word "praise" means "to set a price on", or "to commend the worth of, to express approval or admiration of, to laud the glory of, to extol". To the righteous, praise is our response to God for what He has already done.
In the Hebrew language, according to the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, there are several different words that were translated into the one English word praise. They all express the same idea, but with a slightly different thought according to the context.
The title of Psalm 145 (Strong’s #8416) denotes "laudation as by song".
The word praise, as used in Psalm 145:2 concerning God’s name, means "to celebrate and boast" (#1984) because of the many victories that have been won in His name.
In Psalm 145:4, the word praise, in connection with God’s works means "to commend" (#7623).
In the book of Hebrews, the writer is quoting the Psalmist David (Psalm 22:22) in reference to Jesus Christ as saying, "in the midst of the church [or congregation] will I sing praise unto thee" (Hebrews 2:12). The word praise in this verse means "to sing a hymn" in order to make known to the congregation the purpose and plan that the Heavenly Father has in store for the congregation.
They praised Him with their vocal cords: "I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; . . ." (Psalm 109:30);
they praised Him with uplifted hands: "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD." (Psalm 134:2);
and praised Him by clapping: "0 clap your hands, all ye people; . . ." (Psalm 47:1). with a variety of musical instruments (Psalm 150);
by dancing (Psalm 149:3, 150:4),
while standing in the House of the LORD (Psalm 135:2)
and while lying down in the bed (Psalm 149:5).
WORSHIP is to engage oneself in the act of reverence and devotion to acknowledge the honor, dignity, greatness of character, and essence of God
It also involves a genuine expression of intense love and deep
According to Strong’s Concordance (#7812) the word worship in the original Hebrew meant to "prostrate oneself in homage to royalty, bow down, crouch, fall down, humbly beseech, do obeisance, and to do reverence".
In the New Testament, the word worship, according to Strong’s Concordance (#4352), means "to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand",
also (#4314) meaning "forward to or toward, the destination of the relation, motion toward, accession to, and nearness at". Both the Old and New Testament definitions require getting oneself involved in approaching into the divine presence of God and offering homage to His royal Person.
to worship Him" (to bow down before Him, to move forward into His presence, to reach the destination of their relationship with Him, and to have access into the sphere of His royal Person
So, with that
I do not want you all acting the same,
But a hunger for God
Is quite another thing
It involves all the above
But in an intense manner
Due to the Hunger within
Let’s face it
When is man hungry for God?
I can tell you when
When your son or daughter is diagnosed with a disease
Hunger is birthed
When we lose a loved one
Hunger is birthed
When we are trapped in a desperate situation
Hunger is birthed
But on a normal day
A Sunday
We are not Hungry for God
YET
O there are a few of us
Who have tasted of the divine Move of God
And we cannot forget that moment in time
And all of our being is drawn like moth to a flame
With a great desire
To have the Presence made manifest once again
But we can’t manufacture it
We can only sell out to God
Worship and Praise with all we all
As if today is our last day
And this hour is our last hour
Then – one day
When we as a body are hungry for Him
He will show up
In Manifested presence
And life will never be the same again
