Open with me back up to Psalm
95. Psalm 95. Let's read one verse, verse 6. O come, let us worship. and bow down. Let us kneel before
the Lord our maker. I want to worship God tonight. I am speaking to you from my
heart. I was telling some of the men just a minute ago, I
got to the study on Monday and I had one desire. I did not want
to have another church service on Wednesday. I wanted to worship God with
you, where two or three are gathered in His name. I want to worship
God in my heart tonight, tonight. I may not have Thursday, Friday,
or Saturday. If Sunday comes, I want to worship
God on Sunday too. But tonight, in my heart, in
my soul, I want to truly worship God. I want to worship God. A man told me one time, a man
was, you hear different things along the way, and one man told
me that Spurgeon said, he was quoting Spurgeon, he said, Spurgeon
said, whatever you preach about, preach about an hour. And then another man told me,
Spurgeon said, whatever you preach about, preach about 45 minutes. That's what Spurgeon said. And
then I had another man tell me, whatever you preach about, this
is what Spurgeon said, whatever you preach about, preach about
30 minutes. And this is the amount of time
that each of those men preach. And I'm sure that in a few years
I'm going to go around telling people, Spurgeon said, whatever
you preach about, 26, 27, 28 minutes. I'll tell you this,
and I'm being serious. Whatever we preach about, it
needs to be worshipful. It needs to be worshipful. I don't need to be here if I
can't worship I don't need to be here if I cannot in my soul
connect with my Heavenly Father and my Lord and Savior and His
Holy Spirit. If I can't do that, I don't need
to be here. I need to worship God. Verse 6 says, Oh come, let
us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker. How can I worship Him tonight? How can I worship Him? How can I come into this house
and gather in His name to worship Him? Let me show you something
over in John chapter 4. Go with me to John chapter 4. John chapter 4 verse 23, our
Lord said, But the hour cometh, and now is, when true worshipers
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. True worship is of this heart. It is of this heart. Lord, prepare
my heart. Come into my heart. Do something
to my heart. It would be wonderful if my mind
learned something tonight. That would be wonderful. But
I need something done in my heart. True worship is of the heart.
Paul wrote over in Acts 17, Our Lord is not worshipped with men's
hands as though he needed anything. It's in spirit and it's in truth.
Spirit and truth. I read that. Spirit and truth. And that word truth reminded
me of something. It reminded me of that precious
woman that came to the Lord in need. That's over in Matthew
15. Go with me over to Matthew chapter
15. Matthew 15 verse 21. Then Jesus went thence, and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What
he told them was, I'm not sending her away. She's my sheep. That's who I came for. I'm not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. What a prayer. What a prayer, a soul that means
those two words right there. Lord, help me. Help me. But he answered and said, It
is not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even
as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Help me. Do you ever cry that? Help me. I want to worship you
tonight, Lord. Help me. True worship is in spirit,
and it's in truth. And I want to worship God tonight.
I really, truly do. He told her that she was a dog,
and she said, truth, Lord. Help me. That's true. Help me. I want to say that. I want to
say that. Let me tell you what the word
worshipped means right here. We look these words up, we have
a concordance, and it gives these definitions. And this word right
here, worshipped, this is what it means. It means to kiss like
a dog licking his master's hand. To fawn or crouch to. To lay down in homage. to reverence and adore. I want
to worship God tonight. I really do. I want to worship
God tonight. Go with me back to Psalm 95. Psalm 95 verse 6, O come let
us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker. Over and over in scripture, along
with the word worship, it says, a lot of times, bow down. I looked
up a lot of them, and in many places it also said bow down. They bowed their head toward
the ground and worshipped. And that's exactly what I want
to do. I want to bow down and kneel before my maker. He's my
maker. He owns me. He controls me. And I want to bow down and kneel
before my Maker. John said, He must increase. He must. I must decrease. Isn't that what we all want?
I want Him to increase. We all want him to increase in
glory. We want him to increase in honor. We want him to increase in majesty. Peter said, we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty, the king. Those wise men, they came and
they bowed down and they worshiped the one who was born king. We want his majesty to increase.
We want us, his servants, to decrease. I know that's what
we all want in the heart. We bow down. We kneel before
the Lord, our maker. Worship is not chaos. It is not chaos. It is not noise. And it's not self-promotion. The big thing in religion is
praise and worship. It's, you know, they have praise
and worship bands. It's a special thing. Praise
and worship. And they bring in drums and they
bring in electric guitars and it is one big rock concert. That's all it is. That is not
worship. That is not worship. Let me show
you what worship is. Two places, we know them both
well. but two places. I read these again this week
and oh man, this is worship. This is true worship. The first
one is in Genesis 22. Go with me over to Genesis 22. Genesis 22 verse 1 says, And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And
he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two
of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship. You stay here. He and I are going
to go kiss the hand of Almighty God like a dog licks his master's
hand. And we're going to lay down,
he and I are going to go up and we're going to lay down in homage
to him. And we're going to reverence
him. And we're going to adore him. And then he said in verse five,
we're going to come again to you. After that's over, we're
going to come again to you. That's an important line. Verse 6, And Abraham took the
wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand
and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake
unto Abraham his father and said, My father. And he said, Here
am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire
and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them, together. Abraham believed God. He believed God. He told his
servants, we're going to go worship, and then we're both coming back.
He believed God. Do you know what you call that
belief? It's called worship. It's called worship. He said,
we're going to go worship God. Isaac said, where's the lamb?
He said, son, God will provide himself a lamb. What he's saying
is he's the king. He doesn't need me. He does not
need me. Son, we're going to just go fall
at his feet. We're going to go up there and
we're going to fall at his feet. Oh come, let us worship and bow
down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker. In whatever situation that comes
my way, whatever situation that comes my way, how can I worship
my God? I can believe Him. That's what
I can do. I can believe Him. I can believe
Him. I can kneel down before Him.
I can kiss His precious hand and His precious feet, and I
can trust Him. That's true worship. True worship. Now there's one other place,
one other example I want to show you of true worship. And I pray
that, I want to be sincere. I want to be sincere. I pray
that God would give me this kind of grace to go through whatever
He would have me go through in this life. No one has ever gone
through anything like this. But whatever He would have me
to go through, my prayer is that He would give me and you the
grace to go through that thing like this, like this, just like
this. Go to Job chapter 1. Verse 1 says, There was a man
in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect
and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there
were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance
also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, five
hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-asses, a very great household,
so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. And
his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day,
and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink
with him. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were
gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up
early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to
the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that
my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did
Job continually." Continually. And I believe because of the
end of this story that God saved his sons and his daughters. The
Lord gave Job twice of everything he had. But he gave him the exact
same number of sons and daughters. And the reason is because Job
didn't lose his sons and daughters, they were just over in glory.
So he gave him that many more and now he had twice as many.
But he did this continually, continually, continually. Verse
13 says, And there was a day when his sons and his daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,
and there came a messenger unto Job and said, The oxen were plowing
and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabaeans fell upon
them and took them away. Yea, they've slain the servants
with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee. While he was yet speaking, there
came also another and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven.
and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed
them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet
speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made
out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried
them away. Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the
sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he
was yet speaking. There came also another, and
said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine
in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great
wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the
house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead. And I
only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose. and rent
his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground,
and worshipped." He worshipped. He kissed the
hand of God Almighty like a dog licks his master's hand. And he laid down in homage and
reverence, and he adored. Verse 21, he said, naked came
I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not,
nor charged God foolishly. That's worship. That's worship. It comes from the heart. in spirit
and in truth. It says blessed be the name of
the Lord in everything. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I want to worship God tonight. I want to truly worship God. Oh come let us worship and bow
down. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker. Let us kiss his feet. Let us
trust Him tonight. Let us believe His Word. Let us bless His name. Worship. Isaiah said, At that day shall
a man look to his Maker, his Maker, and his eyes shall have
respect to the Holy One of Israel. That's worship. He said in chapter
43, I am the Lord, your Holy One, thy Creator. You're king. You're king. Let us worship. David said, Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Let us bow down. Bend the knee
before the Lord our maker. Go with me over to Revelation
chapter 4. Revelation 4 verse 9 says, And
when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that
sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and
twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and
worship Him that liveth forever and ever. And they cast their
crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power. For Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. That's worship. That's worship. Take it off and
throw it at Him. That's worship. I want to truly
acknowledge in my heart tonight, in spirit and in truth, that
he is my only help. I don't want to acknowledge only
that to you. I want to acknowledge that to
myself. I want my heart to tell my mind he's my only help. He's my only help. I'm a dog,
but I am his dog. I am. He is my only help. I come
to him. I lie down at his feet. I reverence
him. I adore him. And I know you do
too. Him. I acknowledge in my heart
that he is high and I'm low. He's my king. I'm his subject.
I bow to that. I absolutely bow to that. I know
you do too. I acknowledge in my heart that the only reason
I'm allowed to worship him, the only reason he'll accept
my worship is because God provided himself a lamb. I believe in
my heart that he supplied it all. I bow to that. I adore that. I absolutely adore that. I want
to truly acknowledge in my heart that in whatever his purpose
and his will is concerning me, his name is blessed. It's blessed. At all times, holy and reverend
is his name. He is my maker. He is my defender. He is my redeemer. He's my friend. And we cast all the glory on
Him, every bit of it. All right, I'll close with this
one. Ephesians chapter 3. Because of everything we just
said, everything we've just seen about worshiping our God from
the heart. Ephesians 3 verse 14 says, For this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named. We get his name. That
he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being
rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and
to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. that you might
be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. That's worship, isn't it? That's worship. Oh, come, let
us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. All right, let's stand together.