Join me for the first of four TargetPoint articles on Worship, the foundational purpose of every believer.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. -Psalm 57:5
In 1959 Coach Vince Lombardi took over a failing football team called the Green Bay Packers. After their first and very one-sided loss he sat them down in the locker room and said what has since become famous, gentlemen, this is a football. What coach was trying to communicate is that we are so bad that we are going to have to go back to the very fundamentals of this game to understand it and be better players on that field.
I wonder if our coach, Jesus, is wanting to say something similar to His players, you and me, today. One only needs to examine the direction of our world to know that God’s team is not playing very well. If Jesus were before us in our locker room today, I am convinced he would be holding up a cross and probably saying, ladies and gentlemen, this is the cross. I am convinced that you and I, the church in our world, need to come to better understand the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
That brings me to our topic…worship. Dear friends there is nothing more foundational to the Christian life than the practice of worshipping God, and yet this idea is often neglected in our churches today. Please understand that we are not talking about the thirty-minute experience before most church services that some people come late to avoid—that is not worship as God intended it for the believer. Let’s dive in:
In Exodus we see Moses asking God a question—who am I? God answers him inExodus 3:11-12 And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. In essence He was saying, Moses, you are a bringer of my people to the mountain.
So, what happened at that mountain? God’s people received two things, the law, in the form of the tablets, and worship, represented by the tabernacle. This was the first instance where God was calling us to worship in spirit and truth.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
John 4:23-24
There are so many examples in the Old Testament showing how His people experienced His presence out of a posture of proper worship and praise. Let me illustrate by sharing my favorite verse:
The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: He is good; his love endures forever. Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud…
2 Chronicles 5:13
Let’s unpack what is happening here—the trumpeters and singers are you and me. Yes, we have musicians to help but make no mistake—we are all to be singers as we worship Him. Here we see people raising their voices in heart-felt worship and praise and then what happened? We find out in the very last line—the word “then” appears. Then becomes a transitional word that bridges what is happening to the result—the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud.
We know that the cloud here was the actual presence of God. Think about that—He shows up on the heels of our heart-felt worship. What a profound truth we have here. In the old covenant we know that His presence was in a physical place, the tent, tabernacle, or the temple. Then Jesus came and died on the cross—the Bible says the temple curtain separating the priests from the presence of God, was torn in two, from top to bottom. Does this mean that the temple is no longer here? No—it means that the temple has now moved into us—we are now the temple of God. What an incredible truth.
Please understand that there were a lot of rules and conditions in the old covenant to make sure that temple was properly built and maintained. God would not show up if the temple was not a holy place. The same is true today—if you and I are not keeping our temple pure we will not experience His presence. Could this be the reason why so many of us claim to be Christians but lack any spiritual power or authority? Is this why many of us are frustrated and not able to gain God’s perspective about life?
You will never experience a greater understanding of My perspective until you experience a greater awareness of My presence.
–God
The above word came to me many years ago in a time of deep worship, praise and crying out to Him for His perspective. I know that had to be from Him—there is no way my mind would have ever been able to come up with that.
I hope this blesses you and opens the door for what I want to unpack in the next three articles. We will be focusing on The Three Barriers To Worship.
- A shallow or cavalier understanding of God
- A narrow theological perspective
- A reluctance toward surrender
I want to encourage you to investigate our new weekly YouTube broadcasts for our 12-minute videos dealing with becoming The Man God Intended. Below is a sample from last week. Please hit the subscribe button while viewing to receive notifications.
https://youtu.be/CfhwTBK_u3g?si=T0gIlJGCF6aDr65G
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