“LET’S JUST PRAISE THE LORD!” WITH ALL WE ARE AND ALL WE HAVE BECAUSE OF ALL HE IS PRAISE is the fruit of faith, the essence of faithfulness and the essential expression of worship. Every faithful Christ-follower must commit to grow in the intentional expression of adoration for the Lord. JESUS begins to open our hearts and understandings of praise and worship in His “Sermon on the Mount” in that section we call “the LORD’s prayer.” Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10) What can we learn about praise and worship to the LORD from those in heaven? When we capture a vision of heaven’s adoration, we can duplicate heaven’s quality of devotion and praise. We can learn much about the essential elements of praise and worship from those in heaven so we can be open to their same depth of their heavenly expression of praise on earth. There are at least five essential spiritual prerequisites which must capture our hearts for us to duplicate heaven’s quality of worship and praise on earth. These are the five elements of exuberant worship and praise: #1: INTIMACY “Know the LORD,” is the most repeated spiritual discipline taught in Scripture. In Revelation 4:2-4, John, JESUS’ most beloved disciple, shared his very unique heavenly experience. For John, knowing the LORD meant to know Him relationally, to experience His presence; this is very different from just understanding the divine nature from reading about the LORD in the Bible or from systematic theology which is the study of GOD. This is what John revelator wrote to share his experience, “I was in the SPIRIT on the LORD’s Day. I beheld a throne standing in heaven. Around one central throne, I saw twenty-four thrones and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders.” John saw one very special throne and the ONE who was on the throne. Taken into the heavenly realm, John caught a glimpse of where GOD sits. Upon the twenty-four lesser thrones, John caught a glimpse of the heroes of faith and faithfulness from all ages and backgrounds; he realized these note-worthy saints were “with GOD.” He came to realize that spiritual people must come to realize they are “royalty” because they are members of Heaven’s “Royal Family.” . Paul is the one JESUS uniquely assigned to the “apostle to the Gentiles.” In 1 Corinthians 12:1-4, Paul described what may be his description of his own near-death experience or even actual death described in Acts 14:19-20. Apostle Paul shared his heavenly experience. The timing of this experience suggests strongly that it most likely was when Paul was stoned and left for dead. This is what Paul wrote: “I was caught up in the SPIRIT into the Third Heaven. I am not sure if I was in the body or out of the body. I was able to hear inexpressible things. I was driven to my knees where my shame overwhelmed me. I cried out, ‘Oh wretched man that I am! Who can deliver me?’ I heard the words every true believer has heard, ‘My grace is sufficient because my power is made perfect in your weakness.’” Paul’s heavenly experience and divine encounter may have been within the unconsciousness of his stoning. Or his may be another case of his dying and being brought to physical life again like Lazarus who was raised from death by JESUS. Life out of death is no strange notion for any of us who believe in JESUS Who was raised from death to life. Paul was not sure. But he was emphatically sure his experience was not a hallucination but a divine revelation. Paul knew he was in the “third heaven.” Paul knew he was not just in “the first heaven,” our atmosphere where the birds fly. Paul knew he was not in “the second heaven,” where the sun, moon, stars and other planets hang in space. He knew he was in the “third heaven, in paradise or the presence of GOD ALMIGHTY!” There were not enough words in his vocabulary to express what he heard from the LORD. Before that divine experience, Paul could not fully imagine either the width and breadth of GOD’s love or the height and depth of GOD’s grace and mercy, especially for himself because he had tried to destroy the message, faith and followers of JESUS with a deadly passion. THE LORD knocked all pride and self-righteousness from his heart and life. Even after many years of his personal apostolic preaching, Paul unfortunately still saw himself as a “wretched” man beyond deliverance from his personal sin, guilt and shame. Paul’s personal assessment is one every unsaved person needs to own up to, “I am a wretched person, doomed, damned and undone without any way to set myself free!” Paul’s desperate question is one which every sin-convicted soul must cry out at some point, “Who can deliver me?” Hear this answer; let the LORD write it indelibly upon your heart, “My grace is all you need because my power is made perfect in your weakness!” At that very point of Paul’s experience, he heard the fresh “ring of the gospel.” The LORD wants everyone to “KNOW HIM” like that. That level of understanding and spiritual intimacy is available for every child of GOD. When that kind of holy relationship is ours, we will worship and praise Him like never before! #2: HUMILITY John’s heavenly experience led him to recognize the sovereignty of GOD like never before. John wrote in Revelation 4:8 and 11 about the experience when and where he joined heaven’s praise team with spiritual ecstasy, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come! Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” “He saw the ONE who is. . . Worthy to receive glory, honor and power: Jesus, the image of the invisible GOD, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Jesus, who died and is the fullness of GOD in the flesh! #3: GRATITUDE Apostle John was never driven so deeply into praise and worship as when he experienced exuberant gratitude like never before; he could not hold back anything from his worship and praise. This was when John had nothing in his heart but pure gratitude when he really broke fully into praise as he joined the hosts of heaven; he recorded this in Revelation 4:9 and 5:9-10). This is how John explained the depth of his gratitude which burst forth in unstoppable praise and worship; he literally joined the praise team and hosts of heaven. “Give glory and honor and thanks to him. . . Join the angelic hosts in their new song: You were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” From bended knees, John worshipped and praised the LORD JESUS who was full of glory and honor. John wants us to express glory and honor with all our hearts to JESUS who was slain for all of us, shed His blood to ransom all of us because He does not want even one person to perish but died for every one of us to come to repentance. These earliest disciples understood these undeniable truths because they themselves had responded to that personal invitation of JESUS: “Come unto me, ALL of you who are struggling with the soul-breaking burden of sin.” (Matthew11:35) #4: EXPRESSION “Knowing the LORD,” really experiencing His presence in our hearts and his power in our lives, leaves us in a spiritual state where we cannot remain silent. We dare not sit or stand still; we cannot keep our hands in our pockets; we cannot withhold even a little of ourselves or all we have from our investing everything in our praise and worship to the KING of kings. We must express our gratitude with every breath He gives us and every resource he invests in our lives. No blood-bought child of GOD would dare give less than those in heaven. Beloved John described the worship of those in the words of Revelation chapters 4 and 5: The four living creatures, day and night never cease to express their praise and worship. . . The elders, the voice of many angels were all praising with a loud voice… Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea were praising Him. . . Twenty-four elders all fell down before Him. . . Four living creatures and the twenty-four elders all fell down before the Lamb. . . Apostle Paul’s own experience of meeting LORD JESUS first on the Damascus Road and then in his death or near-death experience led him to call upon Timothy to intentionally lead the church into great depths of worship in I Timothy 2:8: Everywhere the LORD calls us to lift up holy hands in prayer (like a child or a surrendered captive of his love). We will never be fully devoted children of GOD, kings and priests of the LORD until we SPEAK His gospel, SING His praises, FALL DOWN on our knees, CAST all we are and have before the ONE on the throne, LIFT OUR HANDS in dependence and total surrender. In everything and every way must PRAISE THE LORD! HOW CAN WE EXCEL IN EXPRESSIVE PRAISE? We may have to learn to become much more uninhibited, less conscious of family, friends and others around us and pull out all stops like King David did when he danced half naked in praise before the LORD and embarrassed his wife (2 Samuel 6:12-23). We need the sacrificial heart of Psalmist David who refused to offer the LORD anything that did not cost him significantly (2 Samuel 24:18-25). We need to have the over-whelming devotion of Mary who poured out her family inheritance, emptying her most expensive burial perfume on the feet of LORD JESUS (Matthew 26:6-13). WITH ALL WE ARE, WE MUST THROW CAST OFF INHIBITIONS AND JUST PRAISE THE LORD in ways definitively expressed in the Psalter of both the Jewish Temple and JESUS’ primitive church (PSALM 150): Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! It is undeniable that the apostolic teaching about Christian praise defines both the praise content AND the musical expressions of praise and worship. Christian praise is defined BOTH as “SINGING” (Greek word “ado”) with all our hearts AND “MAKING MUSIC” (Greek word “psallo”) with all our hearts to the LORD. At least part of the praise lyrics and musical instructions for the church was found in the PSALMS. The earliest disciples also created their own “hymns and spiritual songs” to praise their LORD. The heart must always be the source of our praise but the expression of our praise is to be with our words, melodies, instrumental accompaniment and dancing feet for the LORD. EACH of us is either the “YOUNGER prodigal son” or the “OLDER duty-bound and judgmental son” of OUR FATHER; at times, we have been either or both of them. The HERO of JESUS’ favorite salvation parable is neither of the two kinds of sons but the FATHER. At least one point in our lives we were each the “prodigal” away from the Father and decided to return home to FATHER: JESUS pictures our praise and worship with the imagery of celebration which calls for celebration, including all kinds of spiritual “mu sic (Gk: sumphona: “the sound of many instruments”) and dancing” to the LORD! Whether self-righteous “older brothers” feel offended” or not about such celebration “in Father’s House,” JESUS quotes the FATHER as insisting, “We had to celebrate (like this) and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:11-32) That is what praise and worship gatherings of the Lord’s church should look like and sound like. This is what the celebration of our return to FATHER’S HOUSE should sound like and look like because JESUS SAID SO! Message at “THE WELL MIAMI” LORD’S DAY, September 28. 2014
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:27:55 +0000
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