Three Ways to Worship The Lamb | Revelation 5:8-14 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Please meet me in your Bibles in Revelation chapter five. And we're gonna begin by reading verse eight down to verse 14. The word of God tells us here in verse eight of chapter five of the book of Revelation. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.

For 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 priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Father, we ask that you teach us about worship. Guide us, lead us, and make us true worshippers for this is what you are looking for. We trust that you will do that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

The main thought of this final section in Revelation chapter five is worship. It's the very last word found in the very last part of chapter five. Look at it again in verse 14. And the four living creatures said, amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped.

I'm aware that last week you heard from pastor Bena's message, and in that message included a few very important thoughts pertaining to worship and what true worship entails. And I believe in God's providence, he wants us to explore this further. You know, in the book of Revelation, the word worship or worshiping appears around '22 times. I don't know about you, but that reflects how Christ wants us to really meditate and understand the importance of worship, considering the fact that this is the final book of the Bible. So here you and I are, in the final book of scripture, and what you find repeated among many things is worship.

Worship. Worship. Worship. Worship. So with this in mind, we're gonna begin by answering a very simple, yet imperative question.

What is worship? And following that, what does it mean to truly worship God? I think a a helpful place to start is to understand the definition of the most commonly used word for worship in the New Testament. It is a word, proskineo. Proskineo is the most common word for worship in the Greek, and what it means is very simple.

To kiss toward. Not as an act of affection or endearment merely, but as a token of reverence, as a symbol of allegiance. A very familiar illustration might be what you would find commonly in history when somebody would approach royalty in ancient times. They would bow down and they would kiss their hand or even kiss their feet to express their honor and devotion toward the king. And so, with this word, proskineo is also the posture of bending down.

Sometimes even prostrating yourself, and that's why some people are more comfortable of defining this word as to bend down. So if we work with that definition, then we have our understanding of what worship means. It is a visible outward expression of one's honor and devotion towards someone. And I think that's what most Christians believe worship to be. But we run into a problem.

The problem, which is a good problem, is found in Jesus's teaching, because he deepens and he challenges our understanding of worship. If worship is purely just me externally demonstrating something of appreciation or allegiance, then how do we make sense of Jesus's words in Matthew? And turn with me there, chapter 15 verse eight and nine. You know this very well, where Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and he tells them in Matthew fifteen eight and nine, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Notice that Jesus is confirming that the spiritual leaders of his day honored God with their lips. Would you agree that that is a very clear demonstration of outward honor? Yes. It is. It's audible.

It's it's visible. It's seen. It's heard. They honor me with their list. Well, isn't that worship?

Well, no. He clarifies and he actually denounces it as vain worship. How? One crucial reason. The outward expression did not match an inward conviction.

It's as simple as that. That's why he says, but their heart is far from me. So based on this, worship according to our Lord Jesus is far greater than bodily postures. It's far greater than external acts. It's more than just audible expressions.

Worship includes those displays of reverence and adoration, but that's not the essence. The essence of true worship is a matter of the heart. It is an inner experience. It is an inner reality. Christ is not after our lips saying things if our hearts don't believe them.

Christ is not looking for us to bend our knees if our hearts are not completely surrendered. Christ is not satisfied with you and I offering acts of devotion and even expressions of adoration weekly in a designated location, if we don't carry that allegiance and that affection in our hearts outside of those meetings. What worship is according to Jesus is an inward delight in God that recognizes him as supreme over all things. That's true worship. And Jesus Christ elaborates on this in another very famous passage, and we'll turn there together in John chapter four.

And notice what he says here in verse twenty three and twenty four. But the hour is coming, and now is here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. This sounds almost cryptic to some people.

What does it mean that God is looking after those who worship in spirit and truth? Here's the essence of what Christ is getting at. True worship is informed by the truth of who God is. It must be informed by who God truly is, and it must impact and influence the deepest part of who you are, your spirit. So true worship includes being informed by who God truly is, and that impacting my spirit, the deepest part of who I am.

Listen carefully now. If I am familiar with truth, divine truth, but it does not affect my spirit, it will never lead to true worship. And if I have ideas and conceptions about God, but they are not grounded in truth, no matter how strongly I feel about those perceptions, no matter how much passion is behind them, it will not lead to true worship either. It needs to be informed by the truth and it must impact the deepest part of who I am. That's true worship.

Let me say it one more time. True worship is a heartfelt response to the truth of who God is. One that continually recognizes with absolute delight that God is supremely better, more glorious, more satisfying than anything else. And once that conviction is settled in your heart, the Lord in his grace gives us guidance of how we can then express that worship in a way that further glorifies him. So if I bend down, if I serve, if I sing, if I do anything, but my heart is not impacted or impressed or is convinced or settled that he is indeed supreme over all things, it's vain worship.

Do you see? This is what Christ is truly after. And I wanna bring this up to you because what we find in the text that we read in the opening of this message, I trust is a wonderful example of how we can now then offer worship to God. Once it is chained around your heart and you're convinced he is above all things, we now receive instruction even in the passage that we just read. How then we can worship him.

Here's the message today. I wanna present to you three ways that we can worship the lamb who is Jesus. Three ways. Because we have an example laid out by us and for us with the worshipers who are in heaven. So let's come back to our text in Revelation five, and the main focus will be verse eight.

Look at it again. And when he had taken the scroll, that being Jesus, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Highlight that. They first fell down. Following that, we're told that each was holding a what?

A harp. I wonder what that means. And finally, golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Right there, you know what I see? Three ways I can worship Jesus.

After I determine he is my all in all, in here more importantly, I can express it in these ways. In fact, I must express him in these ways. Three ways. Number one, the way that I am called to worship Jesus Christ is with my body. With my body.

That's symbolized here by the fact that these elders with the four living creatures fell down before the lamb. You know what's so interesting? The four living creatures and these elders who fall down, demonstrates something that you find most commonly in the book of Revelation and the gospels. In other words, for creatures and for humans to fall down before Jesus appears the most in the four gospels and the final text of holy scripture. Why do you think that is?

Why do you think that the most frequent records of this response to Jesus is in those two places? Because Christ is most visible. His presence is most real in the gospels as he took on flesh, and here as we find him in heaven in glory. His purity and his power demands such a response. The weightiness of his glory even in his humanity called for people to helplessly fall down before him, But that bodily response is not emphasized in the epistles.

There is a different thing that is stressed concerning our worship with our bodies, and this is something that is familiar to you. The priority that is placed on these physical frames and how they should respond to the glory of who Jesus is, is in practical holiness. Practical holiness. Not to say that I can't express my worship by bending down or even laying on my face, but that's not the mandatory posture in the letters to the churches. You know what it is?

Your body in holiness. Paul tells us in first Corinthians six twenty, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body. In my body. And the Bible can't be any more clear than that.

When Christ redeemed you and he paid a price for you, what's included in that ransom is your body. Every part of it belongs to him. He owns your body. Not just your soul, not just your spirit, your body. I'm sure you're like me and wondering, I've never doubted that, but what does it look like for my body to worship him?

What does that look like? And I believe it means two things. It includes what you do with this body and what you don't do. Two main categories that you find throughout the Bible. How I glorify and worship God with this body is what I do with it and what I don't do, it's positive and it is negative.

It advances and then it refrains. There's offense and there's defense. There's go and there's no. And let me give you an example of that dual emphasis in the New Testament. Let's go to the book of James.

Let's go to chapter one and let's look at one verse. James one twenty seven. James says, in chapter one verse 27, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the father is this, to visit orphans and widows and their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Do you see the positive and the negative? Do you see the offense and the defense?

Do you see the go and the no? So, here's what this means. We're we're after this. Right? Pure religion, pure worship, glorifying God in a pure way.

According to James, whenever I sacrifice my time, my energy, my focus, waking up early, for example, earlier than usual, traveling longer than I prefer, attending to somebody else's needs even at the expense of my own. Every time I do that in the name of Christ, in service to others, that's worship. That's worship. An example that James gives us is this, picking up your feet, choosing rather to go outside instead of lounging at home, maybe even putting in your hands a plate of food or some takeout that you buy with your hard earned money so that you can spend the evening visiting a lonely widow or an overlooked orphan. When you do that, my brother and my sister, according to James, you're worshiping.

But this is not the only thing. It's not just in what we do. And again, this is just one example of many ways that we can worship by what we do. It's also in what we reject and to keep oneself unstained from the world. I'm not sure if you've ever seen it this way, but every time you and I deny the temptation to indulge the flesh or to conform to the patterns of the world, that also to God is worship.

So when I'm with a group of people and a name comes up and that person is not in that circle and there begins to be backbiting and the tearing of that person's reputation. And here I am now because it's a consensus, everybody is saying the same thing and sharing the goods and I feel that urge to to say something or make a comment or contribute my own silly observation about a person's way of life that that really may not even be true to begin with, but I choose to instead reject it and keep my mouth shut, or even more than that, speak up to their defense. That's worship. That's worship. Or when I have been tired after long days of work and my mind now is being pulled by the ropes of lust to imagine things and fantasize things that I shouldn't be fantasizing about, and I begin to now come up with a personal appointment with my screen to visit websites that I shouldn't be visiting, and instead I cancel that appointment, That's worship.

That's worship. Or here I am now on a Saturday evening, no plans. There was no cleanup day at church. No basketball event. No volleyball.

No barbecue. No nothing. My phone is quiet. But, hey, I get a text from some friends, family friends actually, but they don't know Christ. And they say, what are you doing tonight?

Let's go to this place. And you just read the name and you Google the maps and you see it. Okay. This is not a place that's gonna help my testimony. If anybody finds me there, that's gonna be trouble.

And surely, there's gonna be opportunity to sin there more than if I stay home. And so, what you do instead, though you're bored out of your mind, you kindly decline. And more than that, you say, listen, since you reached out to me, what are you doing tomorrow? Let's go to church together. That's worship.

That's worship. And here's what that means for you and I, that true worship toward Jesus Christ is totally achievable by any of us. Common acts, small sacrifices, private appointments, visitations, a simple call to encourage a weary soul, things that you don't think are really impactful or monumental like denying thoughts and denying actions and refraining yourself from evil wicked company. All of that is worship and it's achievable. Can you imagine?

So, we fall down. Yes. Not physically, but even as we heard last week internally. I surrender my body by what I do and by what I don't do. That's a fragrance to Jesus.

But, we move on. We come back to Revelation five eight and what do we see? That they didn't just fall down before the lamb. They were each holding a harp. Now, there is no need to over spiritualize.

There is no need to allegorize this detail. Remember, context is king. Context will keep you safe. Every time you see the word harp mentioned in the book of Revelation, every single time, it's accompanied by singing. It's here in Revelation five eight, you find in Revelation fourteen two, Revelation fifteen two.

Whenever a harp appears right after, there's gonna be some singing. So what do we find here? It's so obvious that Christ is worshiped in our praise. Christ is worshiped in our heartfelt singing. Not just our bodily sacrifice, but what we do with our lips.

And here's the part that moved me the most about this detail. How many of them held held harps? Each of them. Every single one in attendance had a harp. And I don't think it means that every single one of them were musically gifted.

This is symbolic. What it does mean is that every single one were called to praise. It wasn't optional. Praise is not optional. We're all called to it.

But my person I know your personality. It's okay. I'll tell you, the spirit will help you because Christ is worshiped when you praise. Now here's so something so significant. We could spend a great time exploring this, but I wanna offer one reason.

Just one simple reason why praise is a glorifying form of worship. What is it about praise that Christ wants from us? We sang it praise the Lord. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. We find it throughout the bible.

But why does he want it? Because it publicly acknowledges God. This is just one reason. There are many reasons why we praise, but let me give you one. It publicly acknowledges God as the source of all good with passion and joy.

It's a testimony. You are testifying. And we went to James. Right? Let's go to James again.

Look at James five. James five verse 13. James as he's wrapping up his epistle gives some final exhortations to different members of the churches who might have different heart conditions, and he gives words of wisdom by the spirit. Notice what he says in this one verse. Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Two questions I have. Why does James exhort Christians who are suffering to pray?

Because there's a tempting alternative when we're suffering. What is it? To complain? To murmur? To maybe even contemplate vengeance, depending on the source of your pain?

It's easily possible for those who are enduring any kind of affliction to preoccupy their efforts and their energy, their knee jerk reaction is to spew out all their problems to another or even to themselves. And James is saying, no no. Reserve that energy and go before God. Pour that out before the Lord. Okay.

That's settled. Why does he tell those who are cheerful? Now, what does he mean by cheerful? The context suggests those who are not weighed down by discouragement. Those who are not trying to fight off anxiety.

Those who are essentially happy. Those that you would ask, how are things going in your life? Wonderful. I mean, no matter what sphere I look at it, everything seems to be going smooth. There there's so much ease.

It's it's wonderful. It's great. Those kind of Christians. Why does he tell them to sing praise? You know why?

Because in the same way that those who are suffering will forget God in prayer, those who are cheerful tend to forget God in their happiness. And so you need a praise when you're cheerful. What does that mean? Here's what it means. Praise repositions us every single time.

Praise has the ability because it's designed by God to give him the ultimate credit for whatever good that you are enjoying in that season. Praise points your heart toward heaven. Now, one might say this, and I I can see why somebody might ask or wonder. Well, can I just give God glory and thanks in plain speech? Thank you, Lord, for all the good that I am enjoying.

I recognize that you are the one who authored all of this. Can I just do that? You can do that, but there's something unique about praise. It weaves melody. It weaves rhythm into your words, and it has a way of reorienting your emotions, so that they are now targeting the Lord and giving it towards God.

It brings the cheerfulness to its rightful place. That's what praise has the ability to do. More than just simple words, it cause you to tap into something deeper in the human heart, the human experience. And it associates the joy and the delight with beauty, melody, and rhythm and says, oh, Lord, you are the one. All these good feelings that I am feeling.

It sanctifies your emotions. All the things that you're knowing here, all the things that make your step lighter, all the things that make your day easier, what praise does, it gathers all of that up and says, this is because of God. This is because of him. Praise contains the power to take all the cheerfulness that you are knowing and to lay it at the foot of God's throne saying, this is because of you. Now, we would make a great mistake if we think that James is teaching that we can only offer praise when you're in a good mood.

Anyone cheerful? Sing praise. If you're not cheerful, well, you don't have to sing. You think that's that's what James is really saying? Absolutely not.

Scripture would tell us otherwise. All he's doing here is simply addressing those who might miss the opportunity to worship God, especially when all is well. So those who may be in a cheerful state and not know how do I give glory to God in this way, James says, sing praise. Be intentional. Come ready to offer that sacrifice, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

And perhaps you're somebody who's convinced that praise isn't really all that important or again, like I said earlier, doesn't really fit your personality. Well, if you're serious about worshiping God, I trust and I charge you actually to ask God to see the wisdom, the beauty, and the honor that comes from giving him praise. Each one of these creatures and elders held harps in their hands. One more thing. We worship God with our bodies.

We worship God with our praise. Lastly, we worship God with our prayers. Not only were there harps, but lastly in verse eight, in golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints. Oh, this part ministered to me deeply. Do you know why?

Because if you've ever doubted that your prayers are significant, if you've ever feared that your prayers go unheard, look where they find themselves. Look what happens with your prayers. Be set free from those lies. God collects every supplication, every intercession, every utterance of thanksgiving, and places them in golden bowls. Where?

In the back room? No. Near his throne. It's a perfume to Him. It's an aroma to Him.

What is your prayers? Now, here's what's amazing. He doesn't say the prayers of world leaders. He He doesn't say the prayers of influential thinkers. He doesn't even limit it to prayers of those ministers who shaped and redirected nations.

What does it say in verse eight? The prayers of the saints. That includes the weakest of the saints. The feeblest of the saints. Dare I say, even the inconsistent saint.

All the saints who had enough faith to believe that God hears them when they cry out to him, God bottles up those prayers and he blends them in these golden bowls and he keeps them there with high honor. And that's really the takeaway from this. No matter what you think about prayer, if you think it's important or not, whatever your deep understanding of it is in scripture, here's one thing that you can leave with. God honors our prayers. God is pleased with our prayers.

It brings delight to him or else why use this kind of imagery? Now, if prayer is an act of worship, how does that work? If this scene, again, demonstrates robust worship, how does prayer fit into that? And I want to present to you at least two ways. First, prayer has been given by God to make communion with God possible.

It's only through prayer. I've said this so many times before, when you look at the tabernacle with all the different furnishings in it, the closest article to the glory of God behind that veil is the altar of incense. There's so many things that means, but one practical point is this. The closest that you can get to God is in prayer. And prayer has been given by God to make communion with him.

Though, yes, on this side of eternity, it's invisible. It's still very much real. Prayer says, Lord, I my heart yearns for fellowship with you. And if you've given me prayer as the doorway to know the closest communion with you, then I will designate time. I will get away from all distractions and I will sit at your feet and I will open my heart and my mouth and pray.

Believing and showing you that I want to be with you more than anything else. So prayer is worship in that it demonstrates to God that you truly want to know him. Not just theologically, but experientially. Not just with head knowledge and head pursuit, but heart knowledge and heart pursuit. Prayer.

But secondly, the way prayer becomes worship is that it invites God to intervene in such a way that the testimony it would produce would grant him greater glory. Prayer is the invitation of God's intervention into my situation. That's what prayer is. And that's what we find here with these prayers that are symbolized as incense. It's not the last time it shows up in Revelation.

Go to Revelation eight. Notice where they reappear. In Revelation eight verse three and verse five what's verse five? Notice what John describes. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel.

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. And there were peals peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. So much can be said about this. We're approaching Revelation eight. I'll keep the exegesis for that Sunday.

Here's the main takeaway. The prayers of God's people that were stored in heaven don't stay there. God gathers them and he returns them to the earth fulfilled. That's what happens to your prayers in mind. As beautiful as it is to imagine that my prayers go up to heaven and God gathers them and collects them into golden bowls of incense as a sweet smelling aroma.

The principle is here that he can take those prayers and launch them right back into the world. In a way where when you witness the answer, you go, this is God. This isn't coincidence and nobody can argue. Prayers are designed to come back into the world and make such a mark that God would receive glory from it. Do you remember what Paul told the Corinthians when he beckoned them to pray for him and his ministry team?

Let me remind you in second Corinthians one eleven. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Oh, church of Corinth, pray. And I said this before too. The Corinthians, were they like the most exemplary of Christians?

You thought whatever church you are a part of had issues. This church had problems and yet Paul, the apostle says, would you guys pray for me? Why would he say that unless he believed that God would even hear their prayers? Pray. Why?

What's what's Paul's heart? Yeah. I wanna be delivered from this, but pray so that many will give thanks on our behalf as a result of the prayers of many. I want God to be glorified and answered prayer. That's how it becomes worship.

It becomes worship when I commune with him and God says, like Paul, behold he is praying, and it also becomes worship because it's an invitation for God to crash into the world and for people to say, there is a living God. And he answers prayer. Let me give you a final thought before we conclude here. As precious as individual prayers are to God, as personal communion is a calling for each of us, the Bible doesn't say in Revelation five eight that those bowls had the prayers of the saint or a saint. The saints, plural.

There's something especially special when we give our prayers to God as a church. When we combine our voices together and cry out to the Lord, that to him is a sweet aroma. With all our backgrounds and all our different testimony, and this is just real, all our different ages. Right? All are different history with God.

When we when we come collectively and designate time to now unify our voice and bring it before him, I see something here that's especially special to God. So how do we worship God as a church? Not just on Sunday for an hour and a half, two hours. You can come on Wednesday too. And that also becomes worship to him.

With one voice, we glorify the Lord. The prayers of the saints. Yes. This means the prayers of the saints throughout history, but also I'm sure means the prayers of God's people when we come and combine our voices together. Why do we worship?

You just heard three ways of how we can worship. But is there any indication of why? What should stimulate me to worship with my body, to worship in my praise, to worship in my prayers? Revelation five nine and ten. They sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals?

For 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 priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Why? Why? Why? Because he died.

Because he shed his blood. Why should I give up my body, my rights, my impulses? Why should I consecrate that to the Lord both both positively and negatively? Because he bought your body. Why should I praise?

How can I praise when my faith is clouded by unbelief? When I'm trying to weather this tornado of turbulence and trials. Well, let me give you one reason to praise. He died for you. He forgave every wicked thing that you've ever done.

Well, why should I pray? How can I pray? What can motivate me to actually make time for that? Well, do you realize the high price that he paid to make communion possible? That God, because of his son, makes your heart his new home.

And now no matter where you are, you can pause and you can give intentionality to your communication with Christ and he hears you as though he was face to face. Why not pray when he shed his blood to ransom people for God and he doesn't doesn't discriminate? Every tribe, every language, people and nation. No matter where you're from or what you've done, he has purchased you. Surely, he deserves my body, my praise, my prayers.

I don't know if you caught this, but in closing here, there's actually an order of worship that's laid out. Did you notice it? There's actually a pattern of concentric circles of worship described in this chapter. Look at it again with me in verse eight. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb.

Pause. Who who are we seeing falling down before the lamb? The four living creatures and the 24 elders. But it doesn't stop there. You come down to verse 11.

What do you find? John says, then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. Now we go from the elders, the creatures, to innumerable angels who are now joining them in worship. Does it end there? It doesn't.

Verse 13. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Pause. Show me in the bible where Jesus is worshiped. Right here.

Jesus is an exalted created being. Millions believe that. Oh, really? So why isn't he on the side of creation worshiping God? Why is he on the side of the throne being worshiped by every creature?

Remember that. Remember that to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. Jesus Christ is being worshiped. By who now? Absolutely every living thing that has breath.

What's the point of this observation? Well, the obvious one is that he is worthy of such worship and he will receive all honor. Here's the practical inspiration. What happens with worship in this scene? Is it growing or is it diminishing?

It's growing. Is it for you? Is worship with my body growing? Is it becoming stronger or is it becoming weaker? Is my praise becoming more authentic or more artificial?

Is my prayer life deepening or am I drifting further from intimacy with God? As it is growing here, apply it to your life, my dear brother and sister, and ask yourself this. Is worship growing or is it weakening? Is it permeating more and more of my life or other things being worshiped more and more instead of Christ? The instruction here is may it grow.

May it take over every part of who you are. You know, one of the most fascinating things about the Christian life, among the hundreds of things that we can talk about. Can I leave you with one? God says your body is a temple. Your body is a temple?

What happened in the temple? Worship. When do you ever escape your body? You don't until you die. You know what that means?

If my body is a temple, then I'm called to give worship all the time. How? Well, you heard it. I hope. By what I do, what I don't do.

With opportunities to praise, especially when I'm cheerful, I'm not going to forget God as the source of my gladness and my prayers. Oh, Lord, if you treasure my prayers in this way, then let me offer it up to you. I wanna express that I love you and I adore you. I wanna fellowship with you. And Lord, here's this problem.

Here's this need. Here's this situation. There's a wayward child. There's my church. I'm gonna pray and ask that you come through so that when you do, you're glorified and you are worshiped.

May we worship. Lord, we thank you for this service. We thank you that the father is seeking after such worshipers. And, Lord, we praise you that in this church, there are many who worship in spirit and truth. May it be a growing reality in each of our lives.

Help us worship you, Lord. Help us imitate this sight that we just witnessed in heaven. We love you with all of our hearts, and Lord, before any external act, we want it to be more true in our hearts. Inspire it within, oh Lord, so that it would be real when people see and hear it, and when you see and hear it more importantly. We give you thanks, and we worship you.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand and let's fulfill number two. Let's praise him. Let's praise him.