Worship 5 Series

Isaiah 6:1 … I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged." 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

Way back in my day, there was a saying that went something like..;

"Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.

You can’t have one without the other"

There was a little more to the saying than that, but, for now, that’s good enough. In that same vane, we could say that..:

"True worship of God will bring service for God.

You can’t have one without the other"

Sad to say, there is another parallel to the "old days", and that’s..,

"Love and marriage just ain’t what it used to be"

In the same manner..;

"Worship and service to God ain’t what it used to be,

or should be."

The other day, there was a family "expert" on TV, and interestingly enough, she had some very good things to say.

When the interviewer ask, "Why do we not see these principles in modern families?"

The family expert answered something like, "There have been two or three generations that have come and gone, and very few applied the principles past down by their ancestors." This expert said that she called these the "lost generations".

Family values and basic principles are far more easily developed through example and experience, rather than academics. Young couples, today, have very few examples of proper family relationships to follow, so they have followed the "model" of their favorite celerity or have just done what comes naturally. Either way, young couples are drowning in a sea of improper family principles.

Therefore, this expert went on to say, "We must re-train a whole generation before we will see proper family values return, as the normal, in the arena of life."

I couldn’t agree more! If I were a betting man, I would "bet" that we will never, at least in our lifetime, see a whole generation re-trained in proper family values. I fear, that even among the Christian community, that will never happen. It takes so little to loose moral ground, BUT a great deal to build moral fiber into everyday living.

The same could be said about proper Biblical worship and service, also. Because there are so few current examples of true worship, we directed our attention back to the example of Isaiah.

Isaiah experienced the "worth" of God and in so doing, he saw his own worthlessness. Out of that experience of true worship, he made himself available for true service.

"Here am I! Send me."

Isaiah’s concern was not so much—how, where, in what way do I serve and how much praise will I receive—BUT instead, his attitude was "Lord, I’m available for whenever, wherever and whatever You desire". That is the attitude of true Servanthood, but seen very seldom in religious service.

Again, because we have so few current examples of true Biblical service, I have chosen Elijah and Elisha as our examples of Biblical service. Please put your mind in high gear, and let’s run through the life of Elijah at the point we left him, in last lesson.

1 Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word."

Elijah "pops-up" on the screen of Biblical history with a startling declaration--"No rain, until I give the word."

1 Kings 17:2 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 3 "Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 4 "And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." 5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.