Worship — David Ravenhill

Again, the Lord it would go beyond the letter that kills, but the Spirit that gives life. And so Lord, minister life to us, change us we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to focus our attention this afternoon on what I am convinced is one of the most neglected teachings in the Word of God, one of the most misunderstood themes of the Word of God, and that is worship.

And I realize, because I sat in the back room there just a little while ago, that Lendl was ministering a little bit along the lines of worship, I wasn't here to hear all that he had to say, and I trust that this in no ways will contradict, but rather complement, and it will bring us into a new and a fuller and a deeper understanding and revelation.

Again, I'm convinced after 30 years of ministry that this is one of the most misunderstood of all teachings in the Word of God, and as a result of that I believe that we're impoverished. The church is impoverished, I believe the individual believer is impoverished, because he does not understand the calling of what it means to be called into the realm of worship.

The Calling and Eight Aspects of Worship

This is a calling, again, that surpasses the calling of the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher. It's a calling that is open to everybody, but is chosen by only a few. I should say it is a calling that is demanded of everybody, but is chosen only by a few.

That would be more accurate, I'm being a little kind on you this afternoon. I want to look at eight aspects of worship. And by no means are these the full, you know, it won't give you a full understanding, but I trust that at least it will put some of the things into place as we look at this very meaningful and this very vital topic.

I'm going to be teaching more this afternoon than preaching. I would love in the natural just to pull out an old message that I've preached before, and impress you again with some sort of eloquence and so on, but I have felt for a number of weeks now, and I've been on the road extremely busy, that this has been the message that God has consistently laid on my heart.

And so I'm going to revert more to that of a teacher. I will not be running the aisles and, you know, wearing out my shoe leather. I'm a little too Irish or Scottish or something for that. And nor do I believe that the priest is allowed to sweat, and so, you know, I'm not going to be running up and down.

But let me give you, first of all, the eight facets that we're going to be looking at. Number one, the priority of worship. And I'll be repeating these if you're taking notes. Number two, the person of worship.

Number three, the provision of worship. Number four, the picture of worship. Number five, the price of worship. Number six, the posture of worship. Number seven, the purity of worship. And number eight, the power of worship.

That's where we're going. Don't get worried. We will be through in ample time for you to vacate the premises by 4 .30, I can assure you. Let me begin by number one, the priority of worship. A .W. Tozer makes this statement concerning worship, that God wants worshipers before workers.

Indeed, he says, the only acceptable workers are those that have learned the art of worship. The only acceptable workers are those that have learned, again, the art of worship. A .P. Gibbs, in his book on worship, says this, the quality of worship which does not result in service, and that service which does not flow from worship, both come short of a divine ideal.

The Priority of Worship Over Religious Activity

Tozer goes on to say this, we are called, he says, to an everlasting preoccupation with God. Man was made to worship God. Man was given a harp, and God said, here above all the creatures that I have made, I have given you the largest harp.

You can worship me in a manner that no other creature can. And when he sinned, man took that instrument and threw it down in the mud. Let me say right off the bat, please do not be led astray by the use of Tozer's word, harp, as though worship was confined to the realm of music alone.

The greatest acts of worship throughout the word of God do not have music in association with them. Now I say that not to be mean music, I say that not to in any way take away or distract from anything else that is being said, but simply I am saying this, that this is why we do not understand this theme, because invariably we link worship and praise as being synonymous.

And the greatest acts of worship, and we will deal with a couple of those at least this afternoon, do not have worship or do not have music with them in any way at all. Worship is far more encompassing than just music alone.

It is the unreserved giving of everything that we have to God in recognition of who he is and his worth. Let me say that again, it is the unreserved giving of everything that we have to God in recognition of who he is and his worth.

T. Austin Sparks says this, the beginning of everything in relationship to God is worship. That is, he says, God having the central and supreme place of recognition, of acknowledgement, of government.

God having the supreme right in our complete obedience and surrender in every part and phase of our being. Worship begins there. It is a relationship, not an exercise. It is not something that we do in specified ways and methods.

It is an attitude of life, a place that God has in the entire consciousness. That is worship. I wish I had time again to repeat that. But it is an attitude of life. It is a place that God has in the entire consciousness of a person.

Jesus said, I do only do the things that please the Father. That's worship. Entirely conscious, constantly conscious of the Father, God conscious in everything that he did. I do only do the things, whether it's singing, whether it's preaching, whether it's work, whatever it is, I am conscious constantly of the Father.

The scriptures, of course, abound. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of verses that admonish us in the area of worship. Luke 4 and verse 8 there, where Jesus said, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

John 4 and verse 23, Jesus said, The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, because the Father seeketh those that will worship him. Please notice again, the Father seeks worshipers.

It is a rare commodity. It is something that God seeks after. God longs for. The psalmist says in Psalm 95 and verse 6, Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our God, our maker.

Psalm 29 and verse 2, Worship the Lord the glory that is due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 99 and verse 5, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. Exodus 20 verses 3 to 5, You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not bow down nor worship them. And so we could go on and on. Again, there is a priority. God is looking for worshipers. He is seeking worshipers. And the word of God again is just full of admonitions that you and I are to come to that place of bowing down before him, acknowledging him for who he is, and having him as the total preoccupation of our lives.

The Person of Worship and the Danger of Substituting Its Means

The second thing is the person of worship. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, You worship that which you do not know. We worship that which we know. You see, the woman's focus was on a place. She said to the Lord, Lord, you know this mountain is where our fathers worshipped.

Our fathers worshipped right here in this mountain. She was caught up again in the religious sort of symbolism, the excitement, again the traditions that were associated with that particular place. Again, one of the great tragedies I think, even in the realm of worship, when it does tie in with music, is that so often there is a danger that the means of worship eclipses the object of worship.

Let me say that again. There is a tremendous danger that the means of worship eclipses so often the object of worship. Somebody can strike a note on the piano and suddenly the whole place goes into a frenzy.

Why? Because it's the music that excites them. It has nothing to do with the object. There's something about that song that they enjoy. There's something about the beat. There's something about the way in which it's put together, and so on and so forth.

And long before God is ever thought of in one sense, their excitement is already around. I carry in my Bible, I've had it there I guess many, many years, over in 1 Samuel chapter 4, a little quote taken out of an old devotional book.

It's when the children of Israel are restoring the Ark of God back to its rightful... No, sorry, it's when the children of Israel bring the Ark of God into the battle. They're fighting against the Philistines.

The Philistines are overpowering them. They want some sort of a trump card, and they think to themselves, the only way that we're going to gain an advantage is to go into the house of God, bring the Ark of God into battle, and then nothing will be able to stand before us.

And of course at that particular time, God gave up His strength into captivity, but this is what the writer says. They were making more of the Ark than of the Lord. Their religion, he says, was degenerating into superstition.

I become superstitious, he says, whenever the means of worship are permitted to eclipse the object of worship. It can be so with prayer. I may use prayer as a magic minister to protect me from the invasive ills.

I do not pray because I desire fellowship with the Father, but because I do not feel safe without it. The Ark is more than the Lord. It can be so with a crucifix. A crucifix may become a mere talisman, and so supplant the Lord.

I may wear the thing and have no fellowship with the person, and so I may be with the Lord's Supper. I may come to regard it as a magic feast, which makes me immune from punishment, but not immune from sin, and so on and so forth.

And so we need to guard again against the means eclipsing the object of worship. Again, in the back of my Bible I have a statement taken from an old book by Goodleston, synonyms of the Old Testament still available, and he says this concerning idolatry.

Man is essentially an image maker. He says his best works in art and mechanics are imitations of nature. His music, he says, is an attempt to present, not indeed to the eye, but to the ear, what may be called a picture of the varied feelings that occupy his heart.

This tendency also shows itself in his religious worship, which he is inclined to make as symbolic as possible. Nay, he seeks to make a sensible representation even of God himself, and gradually to transfer to the work of his own hands that reverence and dependence which properly belongs to the one living and through God.

There is a strange fascination, he says, in exaggerated religious symbolism. It engrosses and excites the mind, but is by no means of a healthy character. It tends little by little to supplant the simplicity of spiritual worship and turn man into an idolater.

Idolatry in its first stage is a sort of symbolism. Some object is selected to represent the unseen deity or to set forth one of his attributes. Little by little the material image takes the place of the spiritual reality for which it stands, and idolatry ensues, bringing in its train that sensuality which is a sure attendant of every form of materialism.

The highest function of human natures are thus abdicated and human life is debased, and so on. You see, there is a tendency again to get excited with religious symbolism. We can do it with our banners and our streamers and our dancers and so on and so forth, and I know I'm not very popular when I say, you know, I have tremendous concern about what people refer to as the restoration of the arts.

Because I have to ask myself, if you restore something, where was it originally? You see, you can't restore a 1900 Cadillac. Oh, let me back up, maybe there was one at that time. You can't restore an 1850 Cadillac, they didn't make them in 1850.

And where is the, where do we find the arts apart from a couple of men that were chosen for a brief period of time to put together the tabernacle? Apart from that, you've got David feigning madness before the king in order to, you know, save his head when he starts drooling, and apart from that, I don't see any arts in the Word of God.

And I've been in conferences, again, we're in the midst of worship, the troupe came down, you know, the dance troupe and all of them having waist about 20 inches at the most and beautiful figures and long hair and gorgeous, you know, looking girls and prancing around on the stage and so on and so forth, and all of that was deemed worship.

And I saw every man, again, with his eyes fixated on these beautiful figures. And again, the means of worship eclipsed the object of worship. And that's idolatry. And God warns us against it time after time after time.

So we need to guard, again, against it. You know, it's like going into a birthday party and you walk into that birthday party and the stream is there and balloons and there's music playing, there's cake, there's ice cream, there's all the goodies laid out and you get caught up in the festivity of that particular situation.

Then you realize on the way home that you never even spent a moment speaking to the guest of honor. It was his birthday. There he was. And so often it's like that, isn't it? That we get caught up again in the atmosphere of what is going on and our focus is not really on the guest of honor.

We need to make sure, again, that our worship has a focus. There is one that is worthy and only one. The Father seeks those that will worship Him. Again, this is the one that created the heavens and the earth.

This is the one that put the stars in place. This is the one that flung them in space. He leads forth a host, he says, by number. Not one of them is missing. This is the God, again, that created the heavens and the earth just by a single word of His mouth.

The one that sits above the vault of the earth reducing rulers to nothing. Again, the one that sets up kings and kingdoms. The one that says, is there anything too hard for me? The one that Isaiah saw as he went into the house of God and suddenly, again, he had a revelation of God high, lifted up sitting there upon His throne, the train of His robe filling the temple, the seraphim crying out, veiling their faces and crying out, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole earth is filled with His glory. Again, the Alpha, the Omega, the one whose throne is established in the heavens, whose kingdom rules over all. We need to constantly maintain, again, our focus on God Himself.

We've got to be so careful that somehow we don't end up worshiping our own worship and somehow we don't get so excited about the gifting of this person or that person or the dancing of this one or the ability of one to, you know, play with a banner or have a streamer and so on and so forth and somehow distract, God forbid, that I would be guilty of taking away the honor that is due God because of my ability, because of my talent.

You see, things need to go to the cross first. And there's so little of the cross in the whole realm of the arts. It's man displaying his talent. It's woman displaying her talents, her abilities, her techniques, you know, her beautiful body, her gorgeous looks and so on.

You'll notice they're never willing to do it at the back of the church. They always want the front of the church to do it. Somehow we've got to judge. We've got to ask ourselves, Lord, is this taking away from You?

And I'm not in any way denouncing the banners. These banners are used that we had on Tuesday night. They're used for an entirely different reason, but I've been in churches where in the midst of worship all of a sudden banners come down the size of these screens over here.

And all of a sudden you're caught up in the intricacies of the artwork and the colors and everything else. At least I happen to be an artist by background and I look and I begin to marvel again at all the beautiful handiwork and the elaborate nature of those things and so on.

And I find myself totally distracted from worshiping God. I'm worshiping the work of somebody's hand. And it doesn't enhance worship. It's actually a distraction to it. The provision of worship number three.

The Provision of Worship as a Response to God

Charles Spurgeon says this concerning worship. He says, It is the work of the Spirit in the soul returning to its author. Let me say that again. It is the work of the Spirit in the soul of man returning to its author.

Ecclesiastes puts it this way. There in Ecclesiastes I believe it's chapter one. He says, All the streams flow into the sea and yet the sea is never full. To the place from which they flow the streams flow back again.

What is he talking about? He's talking about precipitation and evaporation. That there is a precipitation, there is a rain that comes down from the heavens. The rain comes into the earth. The earth eventually siphons it off into a river.

The river flows down into the sea. Then there is the evaporation and it goes back again. The sea is never full. Why? Because it returns from whence it came. And that is worship. It is giving back to God that which is due Him, that which came from Him.

So again, Spurgeon says it is the work of the Spirit in the soul of man returning to its author. It's man's response, in other words, to God's love, to His mercy, to His kindness, to His goodness. See, to know Him is to worship Him.

Paul puts it another way, writing to the Romans, Romans chapter 11. And he says this, he says, For from Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things. And then we've got a chapter division that should never be there.

He says, Therefore I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you give back to God that which is from Him, through Him, and therefore belongs to Him. And we have again this constant cycle. Lord, I recognize that I'm only here because of Your creation.

I'm only here because of Your salvation. I'm only here because of Your goodness towards me. It's in You I live, I move, I have my very being. You're the author, You're the finisher. Everything originated from You.

Everything is held together by the word of Your power. Therefore, everything belongs back to You. And Paul says, From Him, through Him, and then to Him are all things. I beseech you, brethren, give back, which what?

Is your reasonable worship. Or he doesn't say, listen, sing a few songs. He says, listen, it is the unreserved giving of everything back to God. That's what worship is. Again, the songwriter puts it this way, I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me.

Purchase my pardon on Calvary Street. I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus is now. I love Thee because You first loved me. I'm giving back, Lord, that which You've given to me.

I recognize, Lord, again, Your sovereignty over my life. And I give back the worship that belongs to You. Paul puts it another way, writing to the Galatians, he says, the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me.

Then, writing to the Corinthians, he says, I have as my ambition to be pleasing to the Lord. No wonder. Lord, You loved me and You gave Yourself for me. Now, in return, Lord, I want to please You in everything that I do.

Abraham as the Picture and Pattern of Worship

Now we come to the picture of worship. And it's here that I want to dwell for a little while. Some of the great expositors, some of the great teachers of the bygone generations refer to something called the Law of First Mention.

And the Law of First Mention is this, that when something is found in the Word of God for the very first time, it establishes a precedent as to how that word is used throughout the Word of God. We don't hear a great deal about it anymore, but certainly there is value to it.

And the very first time that worship is ever mentioned in the Word of God, it is mentioned in association with the life of Abraham. Abraham, as you know, is called the father of all those that believe.

He's an interesting character. He's the father of the Jew. He's the father of the Gentile. Why? Because he was a Gentile. And he became a Jew. How did he become a Jew? By faith. How do you become a Jew?

By faith. He's not a Jew that is one that is circumcised of the flesh, but circumcised of the heart. But he establishes a precedent. He is the father of all of us. Fathers are the role model. They're the prototype, if you like.

They are the... Abraham really is the patent believer for all of us. And again, he establishes this role model. Fathers establish behavioral patterns in our life. Don't they? Values and beliefs and so on.

We learn so much in the formative years by observing our father or our mother. And spiritually speaking, God exhibits Abraham as the patent believer. And no wonder then that we find worship in association with Abraham right at the very beginning because God is looking for something in this man's life.

And I want to look now at what it was that God desired in the life of Abraham and what it is that he desires in your life and my life. There's something about this man, again, that I get so much out of.

There's so many parallels. If you study the life of Abraham and your own life and you realize some of the principles that God deals with this man over and how many times there is a parallel again in our own life, certainly in my life anyway.

God was after something in Abraham's life and the thing that he was after is after Abraham's heart. He was after the heart of this man. Proverbs says, Son, give me your heart. Don't give me... It's not your money that I'm after.

It's not this or that or the other thing. Son, the one thing I want, the supreme thing that I want in your life and my life, in the life of Abraham, the life of every other great man or woman of God, I want the heart of that individual.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of your heart. Second Chronicles 16 verse 9, The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is his.

What does God mean by the heart? What does the Bible refer to when it speaks of the heart? Well, we need to do a little bit of study. Again, referring to the law of first mention. Let me explain again how this works.

When something is mentioned for the very first time, it establishes an understanding as to how that word then is used throughout the word of God. And the very first mention of the word heart is in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5.

And it says this, The Lord saw the wickedness of man, that it was great on the earth, and that the thoughts of his heart were on evil continually. Notice, the thoughts of his heart. This is the first time that the heart is mentioned and it deals with the mind.

It deals with the reasoning capacity, the intellect. The mind of man. God says, listen, I want your mind. I want your intellect. I want the thinking process to be handed over to me. In Genesis 6 and verse 6, the next verse,.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man, and it grieved him in his heart. Here we see a second phase now, that the heart deals with the affections. It deals with the emotions. God is grieved in his heart.

He's wounded. He's sorry that he's ever created man. And so, not only does the heart refer to the mind, the heart refers also to the emotions, the feelings, our affections. And then Genesis 8 and verse 21, And the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground on account of man.

And so here now, the heart refers to the will. I will. God said in his heart, I will. God is grieved in his heart, his emotions, but also it's the place of his will. I will never again. And those are the three first mentions of the word heart in the word of God.

The mind, the emotions, and the will. You see, what God is after in your life and my life, he's after those three areas coming into a place of total yieldedness to himself, where he's got total and complete control over our affections, over our thinking, over our volition, our will.

And that's easier said than done, isn't it? But you see, this gets to the very crux, if you like, of what worship, of what true worship is all about. God is looking again for worshipers that will worship him from the heart.

Abraham, again, is this man that we first see worship in association with, and God tests repeatedly the area of Abraham's heart. We see him on numerous occasions coming to Abraham, and it's right on these various issues that he begins to examine the life of Abraham.

Abraham, are you willing to give me your heart? The first test, of course, is in Genesis 12, in verse 1. And each one deals with something of value, something that was significant in the life of Abraham.

Isn't that interesting? God never tests us on anything that we don't love. It's on the things that we do love. See, God's never had to test me on the area of golf because I've never played golf in my life, maybe five games.

So it's no big deal. You know, I wish he would test me on that. I could, you know, I passed with flying colors. He's never tested me on the area of hunting because I've never been a hunter. God always tests us in the areas of our affections, and he comes to Abraham, Genesis 12, in verse 1, and he tests him again on his willingness to forsake his family and his friends and his country.

Abraham, get out of your father's house. Can you imagine, again, the conflict that goes on in the heart of Abraham, in his mind, in his emotions, in his will? If God said to you in a sovereign way tonight, I want you to leave wherever you are, Tennessee, you know, and I want you to go to Africa, all of a sudden, the things that would come to mind, Lord, how am I going to get supported?

What's going to happen to the family? What about my mother who's in a, you know, an old folks home? Who's going to look at, you know, your mind all of a sudden kicks into gear. Lord, this doesn't make sense.

Not at this time in my life. I've got two kids ready to go into college. I've got another one graduating this year from high school and so on, and our mind begins to go in conflict with the mind of God.

And then our emotions come into play. And we think, God, I could never, you know, go to Africa. I don't understand the culture. I don't like the heat. I don't like this and the food and so on and so forth.

Lord, I love my air conditioning. I love my car. You know, all those things. And God says to Abraham, listen, Abraham, are you willing to get out of your comfort zone? That's quite a test. His willingness to surrender a lot.

Genesis 13, again, the only remaining member of his family. He's finally got to give him up. Genesis 17, his willingness to yield up his plans for Ishmael. Remember when God said, listen, Abraham, there's another son coming.

This is going to be the real child of promise. And what does Abraham do? Oh, that Ishmael might live before me. God, you don't understand. I'm an old man. Ishmael's a good kid. Oh, that Ishmael. Isn't it interesting that he had more problems giving up Ishmael than he did Isaac?

He never says that when God says give up Isaac. Oh, we love our Ishmaels, don't we? The things that we create. You know, this new building program, this new ministry, this new album that I'm putting out, or whatever it is.

You know, the Ishmaels of our life. Lord, let it live, please. Of course, Genesis 22, his willingness to offer up again his beloved son Isaac. Each of these you can see if you take time to muse on them.

There were conflicts again in his heart, his mind, his emotions, his will. You see, a true worshipper can have no unsurrendered area of his life. A genuine worshipper, there is no unsurrendered area. In other words, your heart is completely his.

The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth looking for those whose heart is what? Completely his. Not partially his. Or not, I'll give you my mind, Lord, but not my emotions. Or I'll give you my emotions, but not my mind.

Or I'll give you my will, but not this. And God tests Abraham, and he says there in Genesis 22, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering. Again, it's the thing that we love that God tests the son.

Take that thing that is so precious, that thing that has got so much value to you, that thing that your life is revolving around, that's the thing. I want to know, listen, do you love that thing more than you love me?

Are you willing to surrender it? Are you willing to prove that that thing is not something that you worship more than you worship me? Abraham, I've got to know, do I honestly have your heart? This is the last test, Abraham.

I've tested you. You got out of your country. You left your family. You left this. You got rid of Lot. You finally offered up Ishmael. But now, there's one final thing. You've learned to love this child.

Oh, this is after Ishmael now. This beautiful child that embodies all the promises of God. Again, this study is born of the Spirit. We heard a wonderful message last night on birthing. You know, we need to be careful who the father is.

There's a lot of Ishmaels running around. And even when the child is born, sometimes God will ask for it back. When the father is right, when it's the Spirit of God, again, Isaac, born of the Spirit, and yet God says, listen, nothing is going to rival me.

Abraham, are you willing to give it up? And this is the first time that worship is ever mentioned because Abraham responds to God. And he makes a journey of three days. When he gets to that place that God indicates as a place, he says to his servants who have come with him, he says, listen, stay here.

I and the lad will go yonder and we will worship. And there is the first mention of worship in the Word of God. There's no band. There's no music. There's not a single note that is played anywhere. And yet we establish, again, as a precedent, this is what worship is all about.

Right here in the life of Abraham, I and the lad will go yonder, we will worship. Oh, would to God we had this sort of worship service where everything is laid on the altar, where everything is placed before him and say, Lord, I take my hands off it.

It's yours. And so worship, again, involves the surrender of Abraham's heart, his mind, his will, his emotions. Let me deal with that for a moment. First of all, he surrendered his mind. There's no questioning.

Again, the clay can't say to the pot of wine. He doesn't say, Lord, let's come, let's reason together. God says that to us. We never say that to God. We don't find, again, Abraham digging in and saying, God, this does not make sense.