Well, I thought we would kind
of continue some of what we were talking about this morning, talking
about worship. And I put together actually a
complete separate talk about worship with some scriptures
and everything, not necessarily to go with what we're going to
do this morning. But since we did talk about worship
this morning, maybe this evening we can talk a little bit more
about it. What exactly is worship? You
know, we kind of talked about that a little bit this morning,
that worship is an act or a reverence to God. It's where our heart
and our mind and everything is stayed upon, thought upon what
the Lord has done and that it causes us to extol Him
and lift praises to Him and honor Him for who He is and what He's
done. And if you'll turn in your scriptures,
if you'll turn over to the book of John, one place that we see where we
learn a little bit about what worship is, is in John chapter
four, where Jesus is speaking with the woman of Samaria. And
we find here that this woman, she kind of, You
know, the Samaritans and Jews, they didn't really get along.
And the Jews, they worshipped in Jerusalem. The Samaritans,
they had to do their own worshipping somewhere else because the Jews
wouldn't let them in. But yet, they were like a lot
of religious outfits, I guess I should say,
I can say, is that they believe that worship is all about going
to a specific building, you know, that it's a building, a temple,
a tabernacle, something like that, that that's, you know,
that is considered, you know, in all religions basically to
some aspect have this place, you know, of where we congregate
to a landmark of some kind, you know,
the Mecca or whatever you want to go to. And this woman here,
you know, she knew that, well, if you're going to worship Like
the Jews, you gotta go to Jerusalem. And so Jesus is talking to her
about how there is about to be a transition while God had set
up for a time that worship was to be done in the Old Testament
this way, that worship was about to be done differently in the
New Testament or after his resurrection. And if you look down at verse
20 or 19, it says, the woman says unto him, sir, I proceed
with thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship." And she's just assuming the thought of
what the Jews say. You know, if you're going to
worship, you've got to go to Jerusalem to worship. And Jesus
said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship,
for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, I know a lot of people take
this right here to use that verse to say, well, there you go. There
ain't such thing as organized going to get togethers. Okay.
But that's not what Jesus was necessarily saying. He just saying
that you're looking at Jerusalem as a hub of this is the only
place where we can go and worship. And like I mentioned this morning,
you know, there are two aspects of worship. There's personal
worship and then there's corporate worship. Whenever we worship
personally, wherever we're at, mine is in a recliner in my living
room. Or on the road, driving down
the road, got a 400 mile drive. I can worship driving down the
road. And I can listen to preaching. I can listen to teaching. I can
listen to music. I can pray. I can do all these
things. Well, that's personal worship. But then whenever we come public,
it's going to be somewhere. If it's going to be public worship,
whether it's outside in your little gazebo over here, whether
it's in here in the construction trailer, or whether it's up in
Joplin at a brick and mortar facility, We're going to gather
somewhere to meet publicly. And what Jesus was telling this
lady is, it's not about the things and the places. It's about the
actual coming together and the actual worship. God is looking
for those who are worshiping him in spirit and in truth. This to me would be a definition
of what worship is, is where we seek the Lord and where we
worship Him and we worship Him not only in our spirit. A lot
of people, that's all they think about is the spirit aspect of
it. If it moves me in my heart, if
it causes these goose bumps on my arm. That singing, wow, it
was powerful. It just raised my soul and all
that kind of stuff. I'm not knocking necessarily
some of that as we discussed some this morning. Whenever I
hear a message that resonates, and Brother Larry was talking
about stuff that resonates, whenever you hear something and that just
resonates with you, like right now, if I had my shirt off, I've
got goosebumps just thinking about the times where Things
have been said about the Lord, talked about the Lord, Him being
lifted up and extolled, and that resonates in my heart because
the Lord's brought me through those times of worship or those
times of acknowledging what is being talked about. And so the
Spirit arises in worship. But Jesus said it isn't just
an emotional thing. Worship is not just an emotional
thing. And that, for the most part, is where people kind of
cut everything off. It's all about an emotional experience. I've not worshipped unless I've
come into this, you know, ooey-gooey feeling of Zen, you know, to borrow from
another religion's terms. But Jesus said those who worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. If you don't have
both of those, you've not worshipped. So it's not about coming and
us all having a good feeling. We can all come together and
visit and fellowship, but, and go away with a ooey gooey feeling.
And man, that was really nice to be able to be together and
everything like that. But if there's no truth being
shared at that, then we've really not worshiped according to Jesus.
And then on the other side, you can go to places where people
gather together and there is perfectly outlined doctrinal
discourses. And yet there is no loving fellowship. There is no edifying of the saints
together. There is no common bond between
each other. All it is is we're coming to
hear the lecture and then we're breaking, you know, may God grant
you peace and you're dismissed, you know, all this kind of stuff.
There is no service with each other. There is no service to
each other. And so we miss out on the spirit. for the truth, or we miss out
on the truth for the spirit. Jesus said that there's a balance
in worshiping God, and he said that the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And so that tells
me that a false worshiper is gonna only worship in this, or
that, or maybe even something else. But the true worshipers
worship God in spirit and in truth. And he reiterated that
in 24. He said, because God is the spirit
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. And so I think that kind of defines
for us kind of what worship is. It is worshiping or revering,
revering God, extolling God in our spirit and with the truth
of God. And I'll tell you, we've gone
to many Bible conferences, we've gone to many different churches
and in the past, revivals and all these other different things
that gather in the name of Christianity. And whenever you come to a place
where the Spirit of God is there, and I'll just say this as a side
note. Jesus promised that when the saints are gathered together,
His presence is there with them. And He didn't necessarily promise
that in our individual. Now we have the Spirit of God
in us, but there seems to be a presence that Jesus has that
is above what we have as the people of God whenever we're
in our private worship. He says whenever two or three
are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst. He said that,
you know, in the Great Commission, what they call the Great Commission,
he said, you know, go make disciples, teach them all things whatsoever.
And he said, lo, I am with you. You people, when we gather together
to teach all things whatsoever Christ has commanded, whenever
you do these ordinances, he said, lo, I am with you always, even
until the end of the age. There seems to be that, and you
guys have all probably been there before. You can tell the presence
of the Lord sometimes, and sometimes you can go to a place and everything's
great. There might be good preaching, good singing, but it just doesn't
seem like the Spirit of the Lord was there, and it just kind of
was a dead thing. I've been a part of that. I've
preached sermons, and when I walked away I thought, And I pray that he's always there
with us. But yet he promised he would
be there. And so we see that they that worship him worship
him in the spirit and in the truth. And there's nothing like
having both of those there. Whenever I go away from a place,
you know, I can go hear some singing, and that really lifts
my spirit. But when I walk away, it's like,
boy, there just really wasn't much substance there, though.
I mean, it sounded good, their harmonies were good, their musicianship
was good, but there wasn't no depth and no teaching, no truth
to undergird all that. And then I've been to places
where there's been very good, the guy said something and I
agreed with everything he said. But whenever I walked away, it
just seemed like dead cold lectures is all it was. Worship is something that is
the truth being expounded that lifts the spirit. And so, I believe
that's a good definition of it. Now, we know that worship is
commanded of us. It isn't just something that
we pick and choose if we're gonna do or not. Turn with me back
to 1 Chronicles chapter 16. Look if you would at verse 25. Well, I tell you what, there's
a whole lot of verses before this. I didn't want to go into
a whole lot of them, but let's just back up. Verse 23, it says,
singing to the Lord all the earth, show forth from day to day his
salvation. declare his glory among the heathen,
his marvelous works among all nations. Now I wanted to back
up to that just for the fact that a lot of people don't believe
that talking about creation, talking about things the way
the Lord has made them has anything to do with the worship and the
preaching of the gospel. Well right here it says, singing
to the Lord all the earth. Okay, now that's not just talking
about the people, that's Show forth from day to day his salvation,
declare his glory among the heathen, his marvelous works among all
nations. He goes on to say, for great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared
above all gods. See, the Lord is great. That's
one of the reasons why we are commanded to worship Him, is
because He is great, and greatly to be praised. Above anybody
else that ever should be praised, it should be the Lord. He says,
for all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made
the heavens. Glory and honor are in His presence,
strength and gladness are in His place. Give unto the Lord,
ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord, here it is, glory
and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Bring an offering and come before
Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. See, we're to worship Him, and
He's commanding us to worship Him because He's due that glory,
He's due that honor, and we are to bring that into His presence,
and we are to give that. We often say sometimes whenever
we gather together, we offer up this sacrifice of praise.
We offer this up to him. Sometimes whenever I'm praying,
I pray that we might be a sweet smelling savor to you in our
worship. These are the things that the
writer here is saying. God commands us to worship him
and the reason he commands us to worship him is because, as
it says here, he has all glory and honor and strength and there
is a glory due unto his name. Brother Larry spoke about his
name this morning, his namesake. The thing that's wonderful about
his name is that in the name, It speaks of his authority. Whenever we speak of someone's
name, we speak of his authority. If I were to go to my office
and in my office get on the office manager's computer and start
pulling up some information, and she came in, seeing me there,
and said, well, what are you doing there? I said JD told me
to come here, who is the owner of the company. JD told me to
get on here and pull some information up on here. Well that name JD
isn't just a name, that speaks of the authority. He is the owner
of this company and he has the authority to tell me that I can
get on your computer that you probably don't want me on. The
name speaks of authority. God's name is His authority. Whenever He said, I am that I
am, that spoke of His authority. I will be who I will be. I'll
do what I will do. Nobody can tell me what to do.
Nobody can change me. Nobody can influence me. I am
that I am, and I don't change. And then we speak about the name
Jesus. You know, Jesus is the name that
is above every name. And what does it say? At the
name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Just at the name of Jesus, whenever
we get there before him, and we see everything in full view.
See, right now we're so burdened by the flesh and sin that we
have not even yet entered into worship like we're gonna worship
there. We've not ever experienced unfettered
worship. Our worship now is fettered by
our sinfulness, by the curse, by our flesh, These things don't
let us experience true worship. We might talk about the holiness,
and it talks about his holiness here, we might talk about the
holiness of God, and we might talk about it probably to the
depths that other people don't even understand yet. But yet
Isaiah, whenever he's seen it, whenever he's seen the holiness
of God, he said, you know, woe is me for I am undone. I'm a
man of unclean lips, man. Whenever John in Revelation seen
him in his fullness and glory, what happened? There was bow
down and worship time. Whenever Peter, James, and John
seen Jesus transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration, what
happened? Immediately worship took place
because they seen with unfettered eyes and an unveiled God, they've
seen His holiness, they've seen His righteousness, they've seen
who He is as God, and we've yet our eyes to behold those things,
but yet the Bible tells us these things, and by faith we enter
into lifting up the worship that we can, but still it's fettered.
One of these days that's going to be removed and we'll be able
to see that. And so at the name of Jesus,
every knee is going to enter into a time of worshiping him
for who he is, for what he has done, for all that he is among
us. So that name coincides with his
authority, with his power, with his essence of all that he is
as God. And that is why we are commanded
to worship him, because as humans, again, we don't quite tap into
the importance of who he is. But by the Spirit of God being
born again, we begin to understand that more and more. And that's
why as we grow older and more mature in the faith, as God grows
us in grace and knowledge, we find ourselves at every little
thing. It brings us to worship the Lord.
Are we coming down here? today and we, after we left the
church we stopped, there was a tree right there behind the
church and it began to turn a bright orange. Just amazed at what God
had done as we're coming down here, the beautiful things that
God has created. I mean we find in ourselves the
more as we grow in our grace and knowledge of the Lord, it
doesn't take much of, I mean everything we see brings us into
reminding us of the greatness of God and what he has done.
that's why we are commanded is because sometimes we can be forgetful
of those things and not uh... take those too hard turn with
me over to uh... romans chapter one we find that here we've seen
that uh... all the earth uh... shows forth
that glory but yet in romans chapter one we find that worship
becomes corrupted by those who are not uh... spiritual those
who are not born from above in Romans chapter one look with me down to uh... uh... well uh... let's see where do
I want to start let's start at uh... Verse 18, For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath
shown it unto them. That's going back to 1 Chronicles.
We know that to be true. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. So that's why, you know, the
little adage, I don't believe in atheists. Okay. There ain't
such thing as an atheist. They may call themselves that
all day long. They may deny that there is a higher power or higher
being all the day long, but in the dark of night, in the, depths
of their soul and their mind, whenever it comes down to it,
they know that there's something out there. There's something
there. And they will go to all lengths,
and if you've ever noticed that, if you're talking to atheists,
for someone who believes that something doesn't exist, they
spend a whole lot of time trying to debate it. a whole lot of
time trying to debunk it, trying to deface it, trying to keep
it out of the everything, you know? And have you ever noticed
a lot of these atheists, they're all the time after Christianity,
but they're never after Buddha, they're never after Muhammad,
they're never after all these other quote-unquote gods. They're always after Christianity.
The atheist always wants to put Christianity out of business,
but they're alright with all these other religions. And that's
because they know, and he goes on to say, so that they are without
excuse, because that, when they knew God, they glorified him
not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man. And the birds,
and the four-footed beasts, and creeping things, wherefore God
also gave them up to uncleanliness through the lust of their own
hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who
exchanged the truth of God that they knew, that was given to
them, into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. And so we see
that worship can become corrupted to the point of it is completely
turned away from God, who we're commanded to give glory and honor
to, to where it's turned around to the creation. And that's kind
of one of the arguments that we have as far as this geocentristic
teachings and teaching about a stationary flat plane, and how
the Bible teaches the creation of our Earth is made, and why
we hold to that. And we don't get into, you know,
fisticuffs with everybody about that. But, you know, the reason
that we hold to that and believe in that is because we know that
in that is what God has done. And we want to be truthful about
what God has done. And that, what God has done,
declares His glory. And yet we want to turn to these
guys who are worshiping the creation more than the creator. And so we see that worship becomes
corrupted and really, honestly, science and scientism has become
a religion. They worship these things. They
worship this stuff. And what a total perversion of
that. Matter of fact, turn if you would
back to 2 Kings. 2 Kings verse chapter 21. We kind of talked a little bit
about some of this this morning, but let me kind of go over a
couple other things. In 2 Kings chapter 21, starting
verse 1, it says Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to
reign. You hear that? Waylon, you're
the same age as Manasseh was whenever he began to reign. Fifty-five
years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hephzibah and he did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations
of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children
of Israel. For he built up again the high
places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed and he reared up
altars for Baal and made a grove and did Ahab king of Israel,
as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the host of heaven
and served them. And he built altars in the house
of the Lord, of which the Lord said, in Jerusalem will I put
my name. And he built altars for all the
host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And
he made his sons pass through the fire and observed times and
used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits. and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in
the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven
image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the
Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house And in
Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,
will I put my name forever. Neither will I make the feet
of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers,
only if they will observe to do according to all that I have
commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant
Moses commanded them. But they hearkened not, and Manasseh
seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the
Lord destroyed before the children of Israel." So here's a guy who
came in And he had corrupted worship, and then that corrupted
worship became perverted worship. He turned from what the Lord
had commanded them and perverted that, corrupted that. And so
corrupting that, perverted it to the place where it, in and
of itself, was completely worse than the people that God drove
out of the land and killed because of their wickedness, because
of their idolatry. And God killed them, and here
are supposedly the people of God. And so here again, we can
see what we've seen this morning. There can be a lip service, there
can be this formal religiousness, but yet it can be corrupted and
perverted. We can be worshiping in an outward appearance, but
if we're not worshiping the way God has commanded us, then it
can be corrupted and perverted. Go down to verse 21. Or verse
19. Amon was 20 and two years old when he began to reign. And he reigned two years in Jerusalem,
and his mother's name was Meshulameth, the daughter of Heraz of Jopthab. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did. And
he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served
the idols that his father served and worshipped then. And he forsook
the God of his father's, and walked not in the way of the
Lord. So we see here there's perverted worship here. uh... that took place and he's falling
after that now brown this is going on in a row in catholic
churches is the perversion of uh... uh... worship of god and
matter of fact you'll see a lot of it these things that they're
talking about this worship of bail all these things all this
came from the same place the roman catholic church that comes
from it all comes back to all this babylonian worship and all
this evil witchcraft and satanic says all And I've said this before,
there's true Christianity and then everything that's outside
there, it doesn't matter what the name of the religion is,
is all false religions. It's false religions, it's all
one harlot. It's not different harlots, it's
all one harlot with different wardrobes on. And you take a look at a harlot
and she plays the part of whatever the one she's seducing wants
to see. And so we have people that, well,
they are led to believe that the cow is the thing that we
should revere and worship. So the harlot slinks up into
a new wardrobe and puts herself out as a divine Brahma bull or
whatever, you know. It's all a perversion of the
real thing. And so worship that's commanded
of God is to be given glory to Him, but yet these people turn
their back on God and begin to give glory to the creation, begin
to give glory to other things, and in doing so become perverted. And you watch. You watch on TV
some of these men, and I'll just say, let me find somebody that's
pretty pronounced. You look at some of these men,
well I won't mention any names I guess, but you look at some
of these men and you'll see that whenever they began, at first,
they seemed to be fairly orthodox. And as time began, their little
heresies, their little perversions, their corruptions, And then you
look at them today and now they are so devious and so turned
and so opposite of what they were when they first began. While
you're back here, let's go to 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18. Now this is
one of my favorite stories of the Old Testament. I love the prophet Elijah. I
kind of resonate with him. He's like a smack talker. I mean,
he knew God. He knew what God could do. Now
he had his moment, okay? He had his moment. But he got
out there and he was confident in God. He knew the truth. And
he did have no problem exposing the falseness of those that he
was in conflict with. Now look at
verse 21. It says, Elijah came unto all
the people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not
a word. Then said Elijah unto the people,
I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets
are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two
bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and
cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under
it. And I will dress the other bullock,
and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it. And call ye on
the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord.
And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and
said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets
of Baal, Choose you one bullet for yourself, and dress it first,
for ye are many. And call on the name of your
gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullet which
was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of
Baal, from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice nor any
that answered, and they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon that
Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is talking, Or he is
pursuing. Or he is in a journey. Or perventure
he sleepeth and must be awakened. Now see this is what I liked
about Elijah. Okay? And what was good is he wasn't
blaspheming anybody. Now people may say that about
our God and they're blaspheming. But here, he knew who God was,
and he knew there wasn't a chance that I'm blaspheming. So I'm
going to go ahead and I'll run your goddamn, he's taking a nap. He's off duty. Verse 28, and
they cried aloud, and see this is what got them. See, whenever
the truth comes, we don't have to doctor the truth up. We don't
have to hide it up, hide it in a nice little veneer for everybody
to be. Listen, the truth is what it
is. You don't have to defend truth. Truth is always going
to find its way. It will always cut. If you're
talking to the child of grace who's been given the Holy Spirit
and the truth comes in, Eventually that's going to cut them to the
quick and there's nothing they can't escape it. The truth is
the truth and they accept that truth whenever the Holy Spirit
gives them that understanding of that. But brother listen if
you talk to people that are not the children of grace you can
be as dogmatic, you can be as organized in how you deliver
it, have the best laid out. And listen that truth to them
they will literally believe something that is so unbelievable before
they believe the truth. That is more, as Brother Laird
said, let's get simplistic about it. Sometimes the most simplistic
thing is the best. And these people got, and so
what happens is they get frustrated whenever they can't overcome,
whenever they're being proved as the falsity that they are,
then they resort to violence. They resort to name calling.
They unfriend you on Facebook. They, you know, all these things.
And look what happened here, whenever Elijah pointed out the
fact that their God was not responding. And they cried aloud and cut
themselves after their manor with knives and lancets till
the blood gushed out upon them. Well, if the blood of this bull
ain't gonna be good enough, maybe me sacrificing blood of my own.
And it came to pass when midday was passed, and they prophesied
until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that
there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the
people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near
unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken
down. And Elijah took twelve stones,
according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob,
unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be
thy name. And with the stones he built
an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the
altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he
put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid
him on the wood, and said, Here again is what I love about Elijah. Fill four barrels with water
and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said,
do it the second time. And they did it the second time.
And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third
time. And the water ran round about
the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. So if it wasn't bad enough, he
already made fun of their God for not paying attention and
being asleep. Now he's going to say, now watch this. I'm going
to taste his sacrifice, but we're going to douse it with water.
We're gonna drench this thing, so there is no doubt whatsoever
that there happened to be a little spark of heat that got this thing
going. Now, this is gonna be so drenched in water. It said,
and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening
sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God
of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I
have done all these things thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that
thou hast turned their heart back again.' Then the fire of
the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood,
and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that
was in the trench. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, he is God,
the Lord, he is God. And Elijah said unto them, take
the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they
took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon,
and slew them there. And Elijah said unto Ahab, get
thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. And Ahab went up to eat and to
drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. And he cast
himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his
knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked, and
said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.
And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, Behold, there
riseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And
he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get
thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass
in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind,
and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was
on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to
the entrance of Jezreel. Now, this right here brethren,
Elijah knew who the Lord was and he wasn't afraid to expose
those things. Sometimes whenever it comes to
false worship we need to expose those things for what they are.
Especially those people that we love, we need to let them
know what you're doing is not genuine. That's not according
to God's word. And we need to expose those things
and to call them to repentance. If you'll notice, Elijah, whenever
this happened, whenever they sing, Elijah worshiped God, and
God responded to that worship. What happened? Their faces immediately
fell upon their faces, and they knew that was God. That tells
us another thing. There should be something in
our worship that is different than everybody else, so that
whenever people look at us in our worship, Their faces say,
the Lord is God. The Lord is God, is our worship
something different than what the people are seeing out there
that is the same as all their gods. And so there's a difference
in them.