Wired To Worship! Series

I love the quotes by A.W. Tozer, “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” Tozer continues “The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy”. Let me ask you this…do you know God in this way?

TRUE WORSHIP DEMANDS THAT WE RECOGNIZE WHO GOD IS. True worship also…

III. TRUE WORSHIP DEMANDS WE RECOGNIZE WHO WE ARE (6:4-5)

Isaiah seen God’s superiority and said, “Woe is me…I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips”. You see, when you recognize God’s superiority then you can’t help seeing your inferiority. When you recognize God’s greatness, you can’t help but see your weakness. We are a sinful people. We are a people BENT towards sin. We are crooked. AND how do measure the crookedness of an object? YOU PUT IT NEXT TO SOMETHING STRAIGHT! That’s where God comes in. God is the standard for perfection. If you always compare yourself to others you will always come out smelling like a rose. BUT next to God you will see how sinful you and the people around you really are.

When we get to the point of seeing who we are, then we can start to begin preparing for worship…

IV. TRUE WORSHIP DEMANDS PREPARATION & RECONCILIATION (6-7)

PREPARATION--Some professing Christians have never even heard that preparation is involved in worship. That some things have to be done before you can truly worship God. Preparation is very important.

Let me give you an illustration: For those of you men who are married, did you just roll out of bed on your wedding day in your tux and immediately walk into the chapel and get married? (some of you men are looking as if that is exactly what you did lol ok bad illustration) Men, did your bride role out of bed and then immediately get married? NO. Before a bride gets married, what does she do? She gets ready! And men, how long can that take? Don’t answer that because you might be walking home! ALL DAY. Here is the reason why I say this, in scripture what is one way the church is referred to as? The bride of Christ. The church is the bride of Christ and we if we are going to worship God then we ought to get ready. Getting prepared is NOT what you THINK you should do, but what GOD”S WORD says you should do!

God’s word says in Psalm 100: 4-5 that we should, “enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise”. THANKSGIVING--Implies we have spent time meditating on all that He has done and we come with a grateful heart, thanking Him. Not complaining and gripping about this and that. PRAISE-- implies that we have invested time meditating on His character and nature and come praising Him for them. Is that how Isaiah entered? (he was most likely depressed and full of anxiety because of Uzziah’s death). Do you enter here with thanks in your heart for what God has done and praise from your mouth for who He is? (pause) Let me give you the reason why most of us enter here doing everything but giving thanksgiving and praise…. Earlier I quoted Psalm 24:1, “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” in that same passage (v.3-4) King David gives us a great picture of how we are to approach God in worship: