Series: When God Isn’t There Week 7: Where 2 or 3 Are Gathered
We believe that certain things have to be in place for God to show up.
Worship has become about aligning all our mechanisms just right so that we can trap God in our cage.
MATTHEW 18:15-20
The church is supposed to be the physical reflection of a spiritual reality—of how God is relating to this sinner in heaven is to be expressed physically on earth.
We often think God’s presence is about us, but it is not.
God is present with us because His presence is the greatest thing in all existence. The presence of God is all about us receiving the greatest treasure in the universe so that we may give praise to the greatest treasure in the universe.
If God did not love Himself more than anything else, He would be committing idolatry & proclaiming that there is something better than Himself. God’s presence is about God. God’s love for us is about God’s love for Himself.
God is present with us not just because He loves us. His presence with us is how He loves us.
God draws near to us to give Himself glory through us. Because when we find ourselves glorifying Him alone, we will be the most satisfied, the most loved, & the most joyful. We no longer seek the presence of God because we want to feel something, prove something, or absolve ourselves of something. We draw near to God because we want to give Him glory.
Many of us believe that God draws near to us because of something in us, because I am desirable, I am lovable to Him. But God draws near to us because He is desirous of His glory for the sake of our pleasure.
The presence of God can be defined as God giving us Himself for His greatest glory & our greatest satisfaction.
Worship is all about God. But we have increasingly made worship about us.
We’ve made it about our experience, not God’s excellence. Worship is not longer about worship; it is about experience.
1 CORINTHIANS 14:15.
Worship is about the state of your heart when you go to praise God.
ISAIAH 29:13.
The Westminster Confession opens with these words, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” We cannot truly enjoy God without giving Him glory. & we cannot truly give God glory without enjoying Him.
We lift God up in worship not because He is low & needs our lifting, but because we elevate Him in our own hearts & minds.
Make your worship about God, & He will satisfy you. ZEPHANIAH 3:17.
