Worshipful Prayer

Introduction: Review of Prayer Principles and the Foundation of All Prayer

0:05 Now, for those particularly who are visiting with us, just a word of introduction and review would be in order. We're discussing together, and this is our Christian education forum, the manner in which we handle subjects is that of open discussion with the scriptures before us. And we're discussing together those private disciplines of studying the scriptures and of prayer, what often is referred to as our personal devotional exercises, sometimes as the quiet time. It matters not what you call it. It's the thing that matters.

0:42 It is the engagement in these disciplines of secret prayer and the study of the word of God which are the focus of our concern. And having spent some weeks on...

0:53 how to read the scriptures to our prophet, gleaning principles and directives from the scriptures themselves, we are now considering this vast subject of prayer. And, of course, we cannot consider it in an exhaustive way, and we are simply again trying to grasp the main, the broad, the fundamental principles from the scriptures. And thus far, we have established two principles from the word of God. Number one, that the praying of a Christian...

1:23 ought self-consciously to be governed by the word of God. It is not enough that we pacify our consciences saying, well, I am praying in secret. We should self-consciously seek to have our prayers governed by the word of God. And we found three or four lines of biblical argument to support that assertion, not the least of which is the commandment of our Lord, in this manner, therefore, pray ye.

1:55 We are given then a structure, a form, a pattern after which our prayers are to be molded. And then the second principle we've established is this. Our praying ought to reflect a use or an engagement in all the forms or dimensions of biblical prayer. You remember last week, or two weeks ago, we had a missionary speaker last week, we took the circle, the pie of prayer, and we looked at its many slices, its many legitimate constituent elements,

2:34 and we saw that there was praise, adoration, intercession, confession, petition, supplication, entreaty, all of these various dimensions of prayer. And we looked at scriptures that set forth these various dimensions of prayer. And then we came to the conclusion, that though this second principle is true, the believer whose praying is regulated by the word of God, is the believer who will be engaging in all of the various dimensions of prayer, at best, his praying is marked by imperfection and sin, and needs the mediation of the blood of Christ,

3:15 and secondly, the Holy Spirit is the great enabler for our conscious weakness, in this area of prayer. We know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself. And then that beautiful illustration that Pastor Blaise gave us last Lord's Day, of the child who brings in the bouquet to his parent, to his daddy, and before he presents it to his daddy or his mommy, with all the weeds in it, the other parent lovingly extracts all the weeds, so that all that is presented is the pure, beautiful, fragrant flowers. And so, the Holy Spirit, who knows the mind of God, weeds out of, takes the weeds out of, this bouquet that we bring to our Heavenly Father,

4:00 and we have then the intercession of the Spirit and the intercession of Christ, thus making our prayers acceptable. Now, that in a very brief way is what we thus far established in this, in our study on the subject of personal prayer. Now today, our goal is to lay hold of a workable definition or rather a practical description of these various kinds or various dimensions of Biblical prayer. Now, before we come to these various dimensions, there is one great assumption that undergirds the engagement in all kinds of prayer.

4:39 In other words, if we may mix our metaphors and our figures and say that the pie must have a foundation on which to rest, before we try to arrive at a working description, a practical definition, say, of worship, of petition, of supplication, we want to focus for a few minutes on what I would call the fundamental assumption of all these dimensions of prayer. There is something that must undergird all of our worship in prayer, all of our petitioning in prayer, all of our supplicating in prayer, all of our confessing in prayer,

Clearing Away Rubbish: Avoiding Pharisaic and Heathen Prayer

5:22 and that something or those some things are wonderfully stated, succinctly set before us in what I would call the introduction to our Lord's teaching on the subject of prayer. Will you turn please to Matthew chapter 9? I'm going to read the passage and then ask you to tell me what that foundation is. Matthew chapter 9.

5:47 Excuse me. I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 6. And then I'm thinking of verse 9. Matthew chapter 6.

5:59 Beginning with verse 5, our Lord clears away some of the rubbish. Before he can instruct his own concerning the proper way to pray, he clears away the garbage that may have collected in their thinking as they beheld and possibly even absorbed some of the Pharisaic concepts of prayer or some of the heathen concepts of prayer. And so in verses 5 and 6, he clears away the Pharisaic concept of prayer.

6:41 When ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, having shut the door, pray to thy Father who is in secret and thy Father who seeth not. And thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.

7:02 Alright, principle number one, as he's coming to the heart of what real prayer is, don't be like Pharisees who in their praying have regard to the eye of men. When you pray, you're to have regard to the eye of your Father. That's the main thrust of what he says in verses 5 and 6. Now, in verses 7 and 8, he says don't be like the heathen.

7:24 You are not to absorb the notions of prayer from decadent religion, nor are you to absorb your notions of prayer from paganism. And now he says, here's the pagan. And in praying, use not vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. They may not pray in the corners in an ostentatious way, but he says, even if they pray in their closet, they're saying their Hail Marys, they're going through their prayer wheel, they're going through their mumbo jumbo, and they think if only they can pile up enough requests, they'll somehow batter down the reluctance that is there in the heart of the deity.

8:04 And so if your prayer is a battering ram, the more verbiage you have, the bigger your battering ram, the more reluctance you'll overcome in the heart of the deity. He says, now don't be like the heathen. He says, in contrast to this verse 8, Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Now, what is the common denominator in both of these directives when Jesus turns to his own and says, don't be like Pharisee, don't be like heathen, for your what?

8:38 For your Father knoweth. You'll notice how this is the common denominator in both passages. In verse 6, Pray to thy Father, and thy Father who see it shall recompense thee. Verse 8, Be not like unto them, for your Father knoweth.

8:59 Now with that is the background and introduction. He says, when you pray. Now we've cleared away the garbage, we've cleared away the rubbish. Now here is the positive instruction.

The Two-Fold Foundation of True Prayer: God's Being and Our Relationship

9:10 When ye pray, or after this manner therefore pray ye, our Father who art in heaven. So the introduction to this whole directive on what should constitute the substance, of our praying, is this concept that we are coming to our Father who is in heaven. And I would like to suggest that what our Lord is saying is this. The foundation for the engagement in all true God-honoring Biblical prayer is a two-fold recognition.

9:51 It is a recognition on the one hand of the being of God as revealed, and secondly, of our relationship to God as conferred or constituted in Jesus Christ. When ye pray, he says in Luke 11, say, our Father who art in heaven. In other words, we are consciously to recognize the being to whom we come, and to recognize him as he is revealed in Holy Scripture. He is revealed as the God of heaven.

10:33 That binds into itself the whole Biblical concept of God's complete self-sufficiency, what the old theologians would call the aseity of God. He is dependent upon no creature. It reveals or it brings into itself what the Bible reveals about the exaltedness of God, about the sovereignty of God. He is the God of heaven.

11:00 And if you just take your concordance and go through and look up these references, you'll come across such passages as you have in the Psalms. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleaseth. Daniel, where he speaks of the God who does his will in the armies of heaven and earth, etc.

11:18 So what our Lord is saying is this, before you engage in any petitions, give us this day our daily bread. Before you even engage in a form of worship, hallowed be thy name, stop and remember the being to whom you are coming when you pray. So that whether you are confessing your sins, whether you are worshiping, whether you are supplicating for yourself or others, whether you are petitioning, whether you are engaged in intercession, seek to have permeating every piece of the pie this foundation, this relational concept of the God to whom you are coming.

12:01 He is the God of heaven. But he said it's not enough to be conscious of the being of God as revealed when you pray. But he says you must be conscious of your peculiar relationship to that God in grace. Your Father.

12:21 He doesn't say the God of heaven knows what things you have need of. Now that would have been true. But he didn't say that. He says your Father.

12:31 He doesn't say even the Father. But your Father. Those are two words of tremendous emphasis on the intimacy, the preciousness of that relationship that is ours to God in Jesus Christ. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of.

12:52 Your Father seeth in secret. Therefore after this manner pray ye. Let your mind and your spirit be filled with this wonderful awareness. I am adopted into the family of God.

13:09 Though the God of heaven is the judge of the earth, he is no longer my judge in the sense that I must dread his wrath. His wrath broke upon the head of his Son. And on the basis of Christ's work on my behalf, I have received the Spirit of God. I have been adopted into the family of God.

13:30 And having sent forth the Spirit of his Son into my heart, I cry, Abba, that is, Father. And so our Lord is emphasizing this tremendously important principle that when we come to pray, when we would engage in whatever dimension of prayer may be proper or whatever dimensions of prayer, plural, may be proper, for that particular prayer exercise, if I may use the term, this is the foundation. The being of God is revealed. And my relationship to God in grace, he is my Father.

Practical Implications of the Foundation: Enrichment of Prayer Life

14:10 All right, any question on that point now before we move into some questions that I will lay before you that will then, I hope, be the catalyst for our discussion. Any question on this principle we've tried to establish? Now, can you see any practical implications of this if we take that seriously? What will that mean in our own practical prayer experience?

14:35 All right, it's 7.05 tomorrow morning. That's the time when you have 15 minutes or 20 minutes or 5 minutes or half an hour to read the Bible and to pray and you're coming to prayer. What should this do for you at 7.05 tomorrow morning

14:52 if you've understood what we've been trying to lay out from the Scriptures? Louise? All right, we'll come more freely if what? All right, we'll stop long enough to remember who he is and who we are in relationship to him, right?

15:14 So what is the most practical outworking of this principle? What will it do? What should it do in our prayer experience? It ought to make us do what?

15:24 I don't want to put the words in your mouth. It ought to make us stop if just for half a minute. And before we start blabbing on about this and that in our prayers, to ask ourselves, do I recognize the God to whom I'm coming? That's the emphasis of Mr. Newton's hymn.

15:49 See how he absorbed things? I always called him John Newton, but now the pastor says, Mr. Newton, mister, comes out of my mouth. You see, unconsciously, we pick up these things from each other.

15:59 Thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee bring. Stop and think. Jesus said, after this manner, therefore pray ye.

16:13 Our Father who art in heaven, God of heaven and earth, and all that that means. And here's the wonderful dynamic element in our Christian experience. Throughout all of your days, as you live in the scriptures, and you sit under a sound biblical ministry, you'll be understanding more and more and more of what that means that our God is in the heavens and who that God is. So this is where exposition and study and assimilation of general Christian truth ought continually to be pouring back into your prayer life, enriching it.

16:52 Because the more you know of the being of your God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the more meaning there is when you say, My Father who is in heaven. Like the person who came to me several years ago when for the first time it dawned on this individual that the devil was God's devil. That is, that he was at the end of God's chain. This person always had, didn't realize at the time, a thoroughly pagan notion.

17:20 We get rid of the pie and the counter on which it rests. Sort of had this pagan notion, didn't realize it was pagan, that here's the whole universe of man and things, spirits, worlds, galaxies, etc. And God controls everything, but here's the devil in his cohorts and somehow they operate out here and influence things in here. But that God does not, in the strictest sense of the word, govern and control even the devil.

17:52 That if he wants to touch one of God's servants, he's got to march up to the throne and ask permission. And then God says, All right, thus far and no further. You see? Well, you can see how that would have a tremendous effect in a person's prayer life.

18:08 If you discover that and then when you pray, My Father who is in heaven, and you're praying, deliver me from the evil, from the evil one, what a difference it makes if you believe God actually controls and can cover and thwart, in terms of his own sovereign purpose, all of the machinations of the evil one. You see? So that there ought to be a continual enrichment in our prayer experience in direct proportion to the enrichment of our general knowledge of God. And that's why all this silly, light, frothy talk about we don't need theology, we just need to love Jesus, we just need...

18:47 My friends, what is theology? In its strictest, purest sense, but growing in the knowledge of who God is and what he is in relationship to his world and to his creatures, and how he works in that world with his creatures. Why, that has tremendous implications in the devotional life. And likewise, I need to grow in the awareness of the wonder of my relationship to him as adopted into his family.

19:17 Some of us still grieve God because we cower in the corner of the woodshed like a runaway slave who's just come home. When the living room and the warmth of the fireplace is there available to us and we have a name tag on our seat, reserved for us, and there we are cringing out in the woodshed, wondering if God's going to come around the corner and smash us. Our Father! After this manner, pray ye, our Father.

19:47 You see? So the more we understand all that Christ is, not only in himself, objectively, but in his relationship to his people, the more we understand of this doctrine we've been attempting to open up in the morning expositions of union with Christ, the depth, the breadth, the intimacy of his covenant engagement with and for and on behalf of his people, that ought to be having a direct bearing upon our prayer lines. Amen. If your prayer life is not altered by what you're hearing, then something is wrong.

Organizing Prayer Dimensions: The Metaphor of the Hand

20:22 See, because this is so foundational to all that follows. All right. I said, and some of you wonder, well, when did I get into the forum business? You've been up there preaching to us for the past 15 minutes.

20:35 Well, I think once in a while I ought to be indulged to preach a little bit on some of these things. All right? Now then, having laid that foundation, I would like to suggest to help organize the pieces of the podcast and organize the pieces of the pie. And we've got more mixed metaphors here than the cat's got lines, but it would help to get the truth across.

20:55 I don't care about the aesthetic part of mixed metaphors. In trying to organize this and make it helpful to you, I was racking my brain to try to find out something that would pull together the various dimensions of prayer so we didn't need to remember these five or six or seven or eight, nine different pieces of the pie, but we could remember something very simple that would help to bring all of them together. Now, I would like to suggest that if you think of the hand as the instrument of prayer. Now, you don't pray with your hand.

21:27 This is an extended metaphor. All right? But think of it in this way. Certain pieces of the pie, certain dimensions of prayer can be likened unto the Christian, the believer, coming with a full hand to give something to God, to render something to God.

21:46 Now, what would come out of this general pedigree? Praise, worship, thanksgiving, adoration. Right? And those were some of the pieces of the pie.

22:00 All right? Then think of the hand that has brought something to God as a hand that is defiled and needs cleansing. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart shall ascend unto the hill of God. What dimensions of the pie will that bring in?

22:15 Confession, entreaty for pardon, forgiveness, etc. All right? The hand is empty, seeking to get some gifts from God. Now, what do we have?

22:27 Supplication, intercession, petition, entreaty. Now, haven't we covered all the pieces of the pie? So, just think of the hand. The hand full, bringing something.

22:40 The hand defiled, needing something. And the hand empty, seeking something. And if you think of that, I think it will help you to hold them all together so that at the end of the week you can ask yourself, has my hand brought anything to God during the past week? Has my hand been cleansed in the presence of God?

23:00 Have I sought to fill my hands with gifts from God for myself and for others? Now, I hope that will be helpful to you. It's been helpful to me in trying to organize it. All right, let's start then with hands full.

Worship in Prayer: Bringing a Full Hand to God

23:17 All right? We want to start with hands full. Hands or hands full. We're coming into the presence of God to bring something to Him.

23:28 And at this point I think it is tragic that a book called Prayer, Getting Things from God was so popular and had such a profound effect upon the evangelical Christian world back about, probably about 35, 40 years ago and it still continues to be a rather popular book on prayer as though prayer was just gimme-itis. And it's obvious that when our Lord gave this basic framework for prayer, He said, we are to start with this concept. After this manner therefore pray ye, recognizing the being of God as the God of heaven, your relationship to Him is one of adopted sons and daughters, let your first concern be

24:13 hallowed be thy name. Thy name be praised. Thy name be sanctified. Thy name be set apart and recognized as holy and magnificent and worthy of all the adoration and praise of the whole created universe.

24:33 In prayer we bring something to God. The hands are full and let's start first of all then with worship in prayer. Now, the question I throw out is this. What is worship in prayer?

24:55 Now there's a general definition which any act of religious devotion can be called worship. We say we will worship God with our ties and offerings. We worship God in any act of devotion done according to His word. But we're thinking of worship in its more limited sense of that element of prayer in which we bring something to God.

25:20 Now how would you define or describe worship? Some of you who have a little understanding of what this word actually means, what two words it comes from. Some of you may not know that. If you know it you don't want to appear smarter than people think you are because then they might ask you questions you can't answer.

25:40 But any way that you feel best would you try to give us a working description or definition of worship? What are we bringing to God when we worship Him in prayer? Maybe? Alright, so then it would not be ascription, the ascribing of worth to God.

26:11 Alright, someone else want to take a stab at it? God would use the word worship all our lives. What do we mean by that? Clark?

26:32 Occupation of the mind with the being of God. Alright? Occupation of the mind the senses with the being with the person of God. So that the focus then of our worship is what God is in Himself as revealed in the scriptures as revealed in His Son Jesus Christ through the scriptures.

26:56 Alright, someone else want to make a stab at it? Cynthia? Alright, so you're telling us now what it is, what are the actings of the mind that produce the act of worship. Right?

27:24 You're taking as not the thing itself but what produces it. Aren't you? Okay, that's fine, that's legitimate. Alright, so I found in Bible dictionaries and in lexicons and the rest trying to come up with something that would be workable, a workable description more than a definition.

27:42 I found this very helpful. Worship is in its restricted sense now, not the general sense, the Father seeketh such to worship Him. That includes what we would call the totality of our religious response to God but in this more restricted sense ascribing work to God. Worship is, quote, this is not original but the pure adoration, the lifting up of the redeemed spirit toward God in contemplation of His holy perfections.

28:15 Worship is pure adoration the lifting up the lifting up of the redeemed spirit toward God in contemplation of His holy perfections. You see, thanksgiving is the lifting up of the redeemed The redeemed spirit in gratitude for his gracious gifts.

28:41 Worship is the lifting up of the redeemed spirit in the contemplation of his holy person. You see the difference? In thanksgiving, there is the acknowledgement of gratitude for gifts. In worship, there is the ascription of worth to God for what he is in and of himself.

Biblical Examples of Worship: Psalms and Revelation

29:04 Now, perhaps the best way to catch something of the flavor of this is simply to read a few passages in which the scripture says people, creatures, beings, intelligent beings are engaged in worship. You know what book is the most helpful book on worship?

29:23 Psalms? Revelation?

29:28 We've got two candidates.

29:31 We've got the independents now, we've got the republicans and democrats on the line one, line two. Any independents?

29:39 Ephesians? Would you like to defend that or is that a...

29:45 Alright, that's a good example. Alright, now you're all right. Yes, Ken? The book of Acts.

29:52 Now, what leads you to say that?

29:57 Alright, very good. Alright, where else can we learn to worship, Mr. Clark? Song of Solomon.

30:03 Song of Solomon.

30:06 Shall I ask him to defend that assertion?

30:10 Alright, Mr. Clark, they all nod their heads.

30:15 Song of Solomon. If I understand it correctly, it's a picture of...

30:23 Christ and his people, God and his people, the bridegroom and the bride. The bride, you know, the worth of the bridegroom. And the daughters of Jerusalem, for example, the daughters of Jerusalem say, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Oh, thou fairest of my women.

30:47 And then she answers, my beloved is this and this and this and this. And she describes all his worth. And then she says, yea, he is altogether loved. Alright?

30:55 So if that is the proper understanding of the Song of Solomon, then that could be a great assistance in worship. Very good. Alright, now you see what you're doing?

31:04 See what's happening? You're beginning to tell me that the entire Bible gives us view of the worship. And that's good. That's good.

31:15 Because once you become aware of that fact, then you're going to seek to learn more of what real worship is, wherever you may be reading. However, I think our first two answers are accurate in terms of my question, what is the most helpful or the most constant...

31:33 Let's put it this way. Where in Holy Scripture will you find the most concentrated doses of examples of worship? And of course, I think the answer would be in the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms. You have great, some great passages in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40, great portions in other sections.

31:52 But the Book of Psalms as a whole would probably be accurate to say the greatest concentration. And in the New Testament, the Book of the Revelation. Now let's very quickly go through a few passages in the Book of the Revelation. Where we find either glorified saints or angelic, intelligent beings in the presence of God, engaged in worship.

Worship in Revelation: Ascription of Worth and Holy Abandonment

32:15 And the Scripture explicitly says they are worshiping. And that's what makes these passages so helpful. All right, Revelation chapter 4.

32:31 John has this vision of the throne in heaven. And what does he see? Well, he sees the greatness of the being. Upon the throne, now pick up the thread of thought at verse 18.

32:44 And there are these four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes, round about and within.

32:53 What did I say? I'm sorry, did I say 18? Four, eight. There is no 18.

33:04 Fine, thank you.

33:06 All right? And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes, round about and within. They have no rest, day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to him that sitteth upon the throne, to him that liveth forever and ever.

33:33 The four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne and shall worship him that liveth forever and ever and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou. They are ascribing worth to the being who is upon the throne. Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were and were created. This is what it means to worship.

34:09 To have the mind fixed upon and filled with this holy fixation of what God is. To know what God is in himself, in his burning holiness, in his might and power and unfettered sovereignty and majesty and to say, I'm glad that God is that way. You see, worship brings into it something more than the mere mental acknowledgement ticking off, as it were, the attributes of God while we're praying. You'll see as we read these passages that every time it's said that someone or someones were worshiping, you can't escape, you can't escape the idea that their whole being was filled with this that is the fixation of the mind.

34:54 So that the element of zeal, the element of abandonment, the element of religious excitement is never absent from true worship.

35:05 And I think that note needs desperately to be sounded. It is not worship, simply to say, because I fixed in the categories of my mind, God is eternal, God is holy, God is creator, and I can't do that. And I can't do that. And I can't do that.

35:17 And I can't do that. And I can't do that. And I can't do that. And I can't do that.

35:17 And I can't come and recite this to God in His presence and say, I've worshipped. You try to feel and sense that other undertone and overtone as we go through the passages. All right? I'll move over to Revelation.

35:29 We could go through the whole of Revelation 5, but let's just simply, in the interest of brevity, start with verse 9. And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou. See the element of ascribing worth unto God. Worthy art thou.

35:48 To take the book, and to open the seals thereof. For thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood, men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God, a kingdom, and priests, and they reign upon the earth. And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying, With a great voice, worthy is the Lamb.

36:21 Ascribing worth to the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain, to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and life, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Don't you see something of the exhaustion of vocabulary? Everything that's worth bringing to Him, bring it to Him.

36:39 And they do it with a loud voice, because you see, volume is one of the ways that we show the intensity of the engagement of the heart and the mind. It's not the only way. And some of us show our intensity more with our volume than in other ways. But it's significant that the Holy Ghost has said, they cried, they sang with a loud voice.

37:01 They weren't mumbling in God's presence, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain, to receive glory, and honor, and praise. You don't get that feeling at all. Here was abandonment. And you'll notice that at times when I exhort you in worship service, let us give ourselves with holy abandonment in our praise.

37:18 And you should see what I see up here sometimes. It's obvious that there's no holy abandonment. Oh, you don't sing like an opera star. So what?

37:33 God's put a new song in your mouth. It may not be the best sounding one in the world to them, but oh, what it sounds like to God. He inhabits the praises of His people. We're to make His praise glorious.

37:47 And I trusted what we studied this morning. We'll carry right over as we worship God consciously and individually. And then, of course, as a body of His people in His presence. You get that note, don't you?

38:00 Abandonment. And every created thing, verse 13, which is in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things that are in them, heard I saying unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the dominion forever and forever. And the four living creatures said, And the elders fell down and worshipped. All right, over to chapter 7, verse 11.

Further Examples of Worship in Revelation: Preoccupation with God's Being

38:30 The angels were standing round about the throne and about the elders and the four living creatures and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying, Amen or Amen. Whatever sounds better on your ear. The pronunciation given in my Bible, if you have a 1901 edition, it puts a long A. Amen.

38:55 If you're a little more dignified, you'll say Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. They're not asking God for a favor. They're not even thanks to God for specific blessings.

39:11 It is preoccupation with the greatness of His being. Then chapter 11, verse 16.

39:19 Still in the book of the Revelation. The poor and twenty elders who sit before God on their thrones fell upon their faces and worshipped. Worship God, say. We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast, because thou hast taken thy great power and its reign.

39:38 The nations were wrought and thy wrath came in the time of the dead to be judged, in the time to give their reward to thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy them that destroy the earth. Chapter 19, verses 1 to...

39:58 8.

40:00 And after these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. See, ascribing worth unto God, for true and righteous are His judgments. For He hath judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.

40:28 And then, verse 4. And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth upon the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia! And the voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, he that fear Him, the great and the small. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Alleluia!

40:55 For the Lord God, the Omnipotent, or the Almighty, reigneth. Let us...

40:59 Let us rejoice in the exceeding glad. Let us give the glory unto Him. Do you catch something of the flavor of this thing by reading from one passage to another?

41:10 I hope it gives you the goosebumps.

41:14 Do you catch the flavor? What does it mean to worship? Well, these passages are a wonderful description of what it means. And it's interesting that in many of these passages, in what posture was the worship rendered?

The Posture and Disposition of Worship

41:29 What grades came? They fell down. They fell down. They fell down.

41:35 And that's not without significance, because both in the Hebrew and in the Greek, the primary words for worship, the Hebrew word means to depress, to prostrate, or to bow down, and the Greek word means to prostrate oneself. Now, that does not mean that the only way you can worship is to fall down upon your face. It doesn't mean that at all. But it wouldn't hurt.

42:01 There are times in the secret place of prayer, the only way you can feel comforted, comfortable in the presence of such a God, is to stretch yourself out upon your face. I know of one man of God who had a high view of God. And he always prayed with his face flat upon the carpet. And he'd put a handkerchief so he wouldn't suck the dust up into his nostrils.

42:24 But that's the way he prostrated himself before his great God. Now, we're not making any kind of an idol of the posture. But the posture simply signifies the disposition of the heart. It is the creature.

42:37 The consciously feeling, and owning, and listening, leveling in his creature-ness, in the presence of the magnitude and the grandeur of the being of God. That's what worship is. Now, if that's what worship is, let me press the question home upon your conscience in the last six to seven minutes that we have. Are you worshiping in your prayer?

Are You Worshiping in Your Prayer? Practical Benefits

43:05 Are you making an effort to worship God? We have seen in our previous videos, our previous studies, that all the dimensions of prayer are requisite for all beliefs. Now, I am not saying that in every single engagement in prayer you must give a certain amount of time to worship. I think it is accurate to say if worship is not an integral part of most of your seasons of prayer, something is terribly defective.

43:39 Now, can you see why beginning with worship, coming with a hand full of a description of worth to God, has such tremendous implications upon the rest of the things that we do in prayer? Can you see some of the practical implications of the benefits of worship? Now, moving from the fact that God is worthy of it, and that's reason enough, can you think of some of the practical benefits of worship for the rest of our prayer? Can you see any?

44:13 Rod? It would kind of set who God is, and so you would feel more confident in...

44:22 Absolutely. Right. So that when I come to petition, why, if I've been prostrate before this great God, it'll color what I'm going to do when I come to Him. He is a great God, and I can ask great things of Him.

44:39 Whereas if I've not paused to worship, you see, and I've come with a mind that's constricted and a vision of God that is truncated, why, then, my petitions will reflect this. Very good. Any other practical implications? Yes, dear?

44:52 Well, I think if you choose to worship, if you truly worship, you can't come to the Lord to confess sins without realizing that you can't really hide anything, honestly. Every bit of darkness in you is revealed to Him. All right. So in the area of our confession, then, if we truly worship, then there will be an effect upon the extent of our confession, the transparency, the honesty, and also the genuine grief that we feel.

45:25 How grievous! A thing is sin when it is offense against so great a being as God. You see? Any other practical implications you can see?

Why So Little Real Worship? A Defective View of God

45:38 Yes, Paul? All right. Then it will help in keeping the motives regulated when we pray. Now, while it's fresh in our minds, I want to just throw out another question, and I hope we'll get a clear answer.

46:09 If we don't, I'll assert it as the closing note. Why is there so little real worship in most of the prayer? Why is there so little real worship in most of the prayer? Why is there so little real worship in most of the prayer?

46:17 It goes on by and large in evangelical circles today. You see why? Rob? There's a defective view of who God is in all of us!

46:27 Say it nice and loudly. There's a defective view of who God is in all of us! There's a defective view of who God is in all of us! There's a defective view of who God is in all of us!

46:32 There's a defective view of who God is in all of us! The defective view of who God is in His character. You never saw anyone oohing and awing on Bloomfield Avenue. If just, you know, one or two-year-old beat-up Ford, Chevrolet goes driving down a lane, down through, but you let a spanking new shining gold Rolls Royce come through town and every head is third.

46:55 That's a Rolls. Why? Because it's not commonplace like your Ford, your Chevy, or your Ram. And because it is not commonplace and it's a thing of great worth and great beauty and reflects unusual craftsmanship, it has its own magnitude.

47:14 Right?

47:15 When God becomes commonplace, may I say it reverently, there's no holy wooing and awing in His presence.

47:25 It's commonplace. Oh yeah, God, Christ, Bible. Yeah, sure, we know all these things. Now get us excited. Promise us some

47:33 tingly, gooey experience. Promise some exotic kind of experience where I can feel this and feel that and there's all this cursed subjectivism.

47:46 Whereas true biblical Christianity never loses sight of this dimension of vigorous Trinitarianism. We'll come to it in the latter part of Ephesians 2. We come to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit so that the whole focus of our religious life is not our state and our feeling and our experience but it's the greatness of the God who is.

48:18 Yes, Bob?

48:23 Men do not realize that God is our Father in a sort of a chunk. In a lumpy way sometimes but when that's our whole outlook of life and God is our buddy-buddy we could maybe compare him with a Ford but he's the perfect Ford and we're the beat-up old Ford and we have to realize really who we are and there's a detective. Right, and isn't the one the counterpart of the other, Bob, that it's when men see the exalted God as Isaiah did that they fall upon their faces and say, woe is me.

49:07 It's when John in Revelation 1 sees the exalted Christ, the same Christ that Isaiah saw that he falls at his feet as one dead. It's when Ezekiel sees the glory of God that he sits overwhelmed seven days by the river Kibar. It's when Joshua sees the man with the drawn sword and recognizes who he is that he goes down on his face like he was shot. And you go right through the scriptures and men, when they take their measure from who God is, really find out who they are.

49:38 And, you know, we can strut along thinking things are pretty well until we meet a valid standard.

Conclusion: Encouragement to Grow in Worship

49:45 And then we understand. Well, our time is gone. I hope that we've gleaned now not things that will discourage us and send us away saying, man, I've never worshipped. No, you have worshipped if you're a Christian.

50:01 You have worshipped. But you may say, Lord, I know so little of worship. That's very good. I hope that's one of the responses and I hope it drives you to the Lord saying, Lord, teach us to pray, which is to say, Lord, teach me to worship.

50:14 Since worship is an integral part of true prayer. And may I encourage you, when you seem to have no fuel for worship, why don't you take some of these passages in the book of the Revelation and just picture yourself being there. For you are there, representatively in those 24 elders. And say, Lord, my voice is mingled with theirs.

50:35 And read back to God and meditate upon until your spirit is, it were, coalesces with theirs. And the words that they utter become your words. And you will be caught up in true biblical worship. Let us look to God in the new year.