Book of James chapter 4, did I tell you the chapter? Alright. And we'll start reading verse 6. But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." I'm going to speak to you tonight, and there's not a word in these verses that says this, but I want to talk to you tonight about worship of God, the worship of God. And let's pray. Our Father, guide our thoughts tonight and help us to understand what this is. Lord, there's much that we've often been confused on. I pray that you'd give us clarity and understanding tonight in this area of worship. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, my text is verse 8, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. I've been reading some theological books, and they have these big terms, you know, and I usually don't do it, but I'm going to use a couple of terms. God is transcendent. That means he's beyond us. He's above us. He's apart from us. He's holy. We are not. But He's also inimitable, and that is He is here also. Both are true. He's here. And Psalm, it tells us, if you want to turn over there to that Psalm, Psalm 139, I'm going to read just a little bit here. In verse 8, it says, if I ascend into heaven, up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. We have this wonderful description of God's presence everywhere, and yet he's above us, he's beyond us, and both things are true. God is far beyond our ability to understand him. I fear that we treat God flippantly oftentimes. And I do not mean that we need to go around sober and, well, we ought to be sober. Somber, I meant to say. But there's a rejoicing in the Lord, but there's also a very deep and humble respect and honor toward him. And if we knew his greatness, we would probably be amazed that He would put up with our flippancy, our lack of respect. We would be amazed at His grace. But that doesn't mean we need to stay in a state where even though we cannot understand His greatness, all His power, all His knowledge, And it's beyond us and I think will be beyond us in eternity. I do not think that we'll ever get to the end of the understanding of God. He's infinite and in the eternal future we will continue to be amazed as we see more and more of Him. Now it says here, draw nigh to God, draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to thee. And I think that what we're seeing there and dealing with is this matter of worship, drawing nigh to God. You know, when the Israelites had their tabernacle they established, and the glory of God was and the commandment was for them to come to that place, and it became known as the house of God, and there was where they would meet with God. And in that understanding, they were to draw nigh to God. And then in this passage it tells us that we were to draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to us. I want to give you three thoughts tonight, three main ideas about drawing nigh to God and how that's done. And we have to be careful because oftentimes we have, I think, substituted a false worship for a true worship of God. When the Word of God is seen, God is drawing nigh to us. I want you to hear me. I remember the first time that the Word of God meant something to my deep and inner heart and spirit. When I was spiritually birthed, the Word of God was that which was used, and I drew nigh to God, and He spoke to me. You understand what I'm saying? I was broken over my sin. God was giving me grace to see my wicked heart, and I saw that I was away from Him, separated from Him, wrong with Him, and He drew near me through the Word. And I want to say to you, I think that's the first time that I worshipped God. You follow me? Are you with me? I worshipped God. I didn't know what to call it. I didn't even know what was going on as far as a term or a biblical idea even. I just knew that God had shown himself to me and that he had saved me and I loved him. and His Word was the way I saw God. Now was He already around me? Was He already all of my life present wherever I was? Yes, but I did not know Him, and He had not drawn near me in that way. Although God is everywhere, He is not everywhere in that sense. of drawing near unto us, revealing Himself to us. Worshipping God, are you with me? Worshipping God is God revealing Himself to us. And it's the Word of God that does that. Now has that happened since? Have you ever had, now those of you that are saved and understand what I'm talking about in this matter of being saved, You met the Lord, He drew near to you, and it was His grace that drew you to Him, and He humbled you. You didn't humble yourself, although God tells us to humble ourselves. It was God that gave you the grace to be humbled. And He did things in your life to break you, to humble you. And so that when you wanted him and were drawing nigh to him, he would show you and draw nigh to you and reveal himself to you. Someone said that I read recently that Jesus Christ is God's speech. We use word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus Christ is the speech of God to us, and it's when you came to know Christ that God drew near to you. And that's when you experience a worship of God. You worshiped Him when you got saved. Worship is that which we have as we look to God, as we see Him, as we understand Him, as we adore Him, as we submit to Him, as we honor Him in our heart. Now, how many times have you read the Word of God and you did not worship God? That's very common, isn't it? You read a little bit, and you say, what did I read? I wasn't paying attention. But it is through the Word of God that God draws near you. Now this is prayer meeting tonight, and we'll look at a second way that we draw near to God, and He draws near to us. Before I get into that, may I tell you that's why it's important for you to go to church. A part of church, church is where to come together to worship God and a part of that is hearing what God says. How many times has God affected your heart while you were in church and God spoke to you and He broke you and humbled you and you drew near to Him and then He drew near to you, right? And that's an experience that we need constantly, continually. And it ought not to be just when we go to church, but it ought to be also when we're in our living room reading the Bible, that we're drawing near to God. Our spirit, our desire is to close other things out and to draw near to God. And when we do, what does he do? He draws near to us. And many problems are settled. I don't know what it is, how you do, but sometimes early in the morning before I wake up fully, a scripture is place in my heart about something and understanding comes. Maybe I'm wrestling in my mind with a problem or an idea or a thought or something that needs to be done and God speaks and we have this wonderful experience of worship. Now, I've seen things, you know, you can do that at a football game, too. That's not necessarily worship, you see. I'm not saying it isn't. We'll get to the music in just a little bit, but let me look at the second thing, all right? What's the second matter that we find that we worship God through? And I hesitate to use this the second, I was going to use it the last because this is prayer meeting tonight, but let's go ahead in the right order. Prayer is an experience of worship. Now I don't think these things are new to you, what I'm going to say, but prayer to God, when it's practiced, we find worship in our lives. We're worshiping and prayer is drawing near to God, and then he draws near to us. And not that he, in fact, and we need to understand this if you look at this. He says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, then draw nigh to God. So there is, we often are coming to a place where battles or troubles or heartache or deaths or sorrows and sickness and all kinds of things in our life are worked out in our life for our good, to humble us, where then we will come to God with that humble spirit, although it is God that created it in us by His grace and circumstances that He wisely puts in our life so that we will then draw nigh to Him in prayer. And church is a place of prayer. It's worship God because It's a place and time where we gather to pray. This is a Wednesday night. This church has a prayer meeting. And that is a very important thing. Look, much in Christianity today emphasizes some kind of emotional matter instead of the real things that God would have us to be involved in, and that is prayer. So many experiences. in life, wrestling with God in prayer, and when you have a decision to make and you want this and God is pulling this way and you say, I can't do that. I don't know how to do that. I don't want to do that. And you're over here in your own ideas and thoughts and desires and pretty soon God begins to work in you as a Christian to show you and to teach you and mold you and you begin to pray, and you say, God, I don't wanna do that, and you begin to pray, not my will, no, that's not my will. You begin to pray, and pretty soon, you see things in such a way as God is, you're drawing nigh to God, you're wanting what God wants, and yet you, in the flesh, don't want to, but you're drawing near, and then he draws near to you, and you find yourself with answers. So many times, I talked to a preacher not too long ago, had a hard and difficult life as a child, and we were talking with a group of preachers. And he and I got to talking to each other in front of this group of preachers about how so many times on a Saturday night or through the week before a Sunday that we were praying and asking God and wrestling with God about what to preach. And sometimes, do you know what a preacher goes through? Sometimes he says, Lord, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna make somebody mad. I don't wanna offend anybody. I don't wanna be unpopular. I don't want somebody talking about me. and but you don't know what else to preach and God keeps on withholding from you and finally you start giving in and submitting to him and then he answers your prayer and you're worshiping God. You're drawing nigh to him, it's a wrestling match oftentimes, and then he draws nigh to you. And the experiences of that are sweet. and life-changing. This is not a theory religion. Look, if you have an experience, somebody told me that they saw God this past week. And my Bible tells me that I told him, I said, No, I know you haven't seen God. He said, How do you know that? I said, Because you'd be dead. you wouldn't be here. But this interaction with God, He's far above us, and can you imagine the Creator of all the universe out there drawing nigh to us and to an individual? That is amazing, and it's an experience, wondrous experiences in God changes us in those times of worship. All right. Now the third, all right. How about when we have a communion with God? Now I know that prayer is kind of like that in a way, but There is in our experiences with God, drawing nigh to Him and Him drawing nigh to us, there is something in us that has this expression to God. The Lord's Supper is I grew up in a church, never took the Lord's Supper, couldn't until I was saved. I always wondered what that grape juice tasted like. And I thought it was unfair, they wouldn't let me have it. Of course, when I got saved, then I understood, and I was glad, and I could take of the Lord's Supper. And I recognized that the grape juice and the bread were the emblems of Christ's broken body and spilled blood. but in that was for me to have an observation of God, what He had done for me, and then be able to take part in an experience with Him. I don't know if I want to use that word experience, but in this interaction with Him, And I have to say to you that many times I just took it mechanically. Did you ever do that? But Lord, you did spill your blood for me. You really did. And you hung on that cross for me. Your body was broken for me. Now that's an ordinance of God that God gives the church to give to those that are saved, and it's a ceremony. We only have two in the New Testament, two ceremonies, and that's one of them. But it's called, and many people call it a communion. There's this interaction in that, should be, between us and God. But let's expand that a little bit more. There's this understanding of God like we did not or we weren't maybe paying attention or we needed to pay attention more and pretty soon there's a reality of Christ again that He is my Savior, that He loves me. I commune with Him in that. I could be driving down the road having a a communion with God, you follow me? Where I am experiencing Him and He is drawing nigh to me. And I might start singing. You know what they did after the Lord's Supper? They sang a hymn. Don't you think they were worshiping God? But see, the worship was not just in a song. It wasn't, did you ever sing a song and you weren't meaning the word of it? Did you ever sing a song and it was from your heart to the Lord? You see, here it is, are you with me? Now look, if you're not saved, you don't know a thing I'm talking about. You don't know a thing I'm talking about. What's your idea of God is some fact, idea. There's a preacher friend of mine, he called me and told me what another preacher in Nepal called some, I can't go through the whole story, but he came across, in Nepal there was hardly any Christians you see. And this man has preached all over the country, and many, many, many, many, many churches have been started, and he's trained many pastors. Well, he ran into a group of Baptists in India that had been, this community of Baptists in India had started maybe a hundred years ago. And now their children, grandchildren, you see, are a part of those churches. And when he went to preach to them and taught them things, they didn't understand. And he said, these are, what's the word, when you have a community, cultural, these are cultural Baptists. You see? Cultural Baptist. Well, I grew up a Baptist. My parents were Baptists. My great-grandparents were Baptists. I went to church. That's what a Baptist does. He goes to church. But he said, these cultural Baptists, they don't read their Bible. He said, they don't go to prayer meetings. He said they don't talk to anybody about their salvation, about how Christ saved them, they don't tell anybody about any of those things. But they're Baptists. And I'm gonna tell you something, chances are they're not saved, what do you think? And they don't know what worship is. Now to get somebody like that excited about music, you know what you have to do? Are you with me? Are you with me? To get somebody excited about that, you gotta have an entertaining preacher. You gotta have somebody that doesn't step on your toes too much. You don't want to be exposed. But you see, if you're not saved, God ain't gonna draw near you. It's not that he's prejudiced. It said, He knows your heart. Where does all this grace start with? It starts with Him drawing you. You quit resisting Him and start drawing nigh to Him and He draws nigh to you. And salvation occurs. And then it continues the process. And what did you do when you were saved? Lord, huh? You're talking to him. You're saying how good you are. You're praising him. You don't even know how to sing maybe the songs, but your heart is singing praise to him. There's that interaction. You know him. He knows you. You're talking to him. He's talking to you. That's worship. And sometimes it'll come out of a wonderful song. Maybe you'll even write a song. One of my daughters wrote a song the other day. It's a wonderful song. But it has to come from the heart, doesn't it? You think that John Newton had a praise of God, had a worship of God when he said, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. He's communicating. That's worship. It's also worship when you communicate and you brag on Him to you. That's what soul winning is. We can call it that. Telling people about Christ. That's worship. Unless it's just mechanical and you're doing it out of duty, but if you have a heart for God and you want people to be saved, you'll be communicating to them. Would you agree? And you're crying out to God, you're drawing nigh to God, and what does God do? He draws nigh to you. You know, years ago, I was trying to talk to somebody every day about the Lord, and one day I had to go, I lived in New Mexico, just over ended from Texas, and pastored there, and I had to go to Amarillo to get my car worked on. And I thought, and I'm going to be there all day, and I thought, God, how am I going to talk to somebody about the Lord? And he said, well, there's probably somebody you'll run into. And sure enough, I was sitting in the waiting room, and I asked this lady about her relationship with God. And she said, you know, I just found out I've got cancer. And we had a wonderful time of being able to share with her what God had done for me and what Christ could do for her. And we weren't talking about healing. We were talking about salvation. Some of the great experiences in life have been when a person that knows the Lord speaks and says, I want to tell you about my Savior. What do you think? Do you think that's drawing near to God? Did you ever feel a closeness to the Lord, like He was there with you when you were talking to somebody about the Lord and giving you something? Sometimes I've gotten out of the pulpit and I thought, you know, God was giving me whatever I was saying right then. Now let me come back to prayer. What do I think about when I go to a prayer meeting? Well, I'm going to be honest with you. Sometimes before I am in a group and I'm going to pray, I think, am I going to say everything right? Do you ever think like that? Am I going to foul up? We don't need to do that, do we? But I'm going to be honest with you, that's what I think, and I remember as a young Christian I didn't want to pray in front of people, and that's alright. Whether I prayed out loud or prayed silently, I needed to draw to God, draw near to God. Humble myself. Maybe mourn and weep over my condition of coldness and wrong in my life. But a church that will draw nigh unto God, are you hearing this? Will be a church that God will draw nigh to them. And a church that's willing to listen to the Bible, but more than just listen to it, but want it. to be their guide, God will draw nigh to them. And a church that will take their stand for the Lord and not be ashamed of Christ, there'll be a drawing nigh to God. And guess what that'll do? You're seeing the results. You're seeing people saved. You're seeing effects on people. Does God need to draw nigh to the church here? And if He doesn't, what are we going to have? It's a mess. Did you come to church tonight drawing nigh to God? Now the preacher has kind of an inside track on this because he's got to get up and make a fool of himself, or make it sound good at least, and he's got to have God's help. But you see, you need to become ready to receive what God has said. You need to come drawing nigh to God so God will speak to you. And you need to come at a prayer meeting drawing nigh to God so that God will draw nigh to you and give you that wonderful grace to pray. Hallelujah. I know that doesn't sound like we're talking much about worship, but isn't that worship? When your heart draws an eye to God, isn't that worship? When he draws an eye to you, isn't that worship? When you put other thoughts aside and your concern is not for yourself but for God, and you say, I want God to be honored, I want God to be lifted up, I want somebody in the services to be saved, is that not worship? I don't want my way anymore. I want God's way. Isn't that worship? Hallelujah. I hear a lot of people, a lot of churches talk about worship, and I don't know that they're talking about what I'm talking about. I'm not sure they're not, some of them at least, talking about some emotion, some feeling. I'm going to confess something to you. I went to church not too long ago, and man, everybody was with it because the rock band was up there playing. But when the rock band got through and the preacher started preaching, people got moving around, going to the bathroom, getting up, walking around. But when that rock music was going, nobody moved. Something strange, don't you think? All right. Well, I hope it has helped. We come to worship, and this is a prayer meeting tonight, and this is what we need. I hope I didn't take too long.