So before we begin, or really more as an introduction to the message this morning, I want to read from the Valley of Vision, a Puritan prayer that's titled The Great God. Listen very closely to what this individual wrote. O fountain of all good, destroy in me every lofty thought. Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds. Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness. Implant in me true lowliness of spirit. Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence. Open in me a fount of penitential tears. Break me, then bind me up. Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God. Then can the Father take up his abode in me. Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch. Then can the Holy Spirit descend in sanctifying grace. O Holy Trinity, three persons and one God inhabit me, a temple concentrated to thy glory. When thou art present, evil cannot abide. In thy fellowship is fullness of joy. Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience. By thy side no fears disturb, no apprehensions banish rest of mind. With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance. Make me meet through repentance for thine indwelling. Nothing exceeds thy power. Nothing is too great for thee to do. Nothing too good for thee to give. Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love, limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name. Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored, backsliders reclaimed, Satan's captives released, blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up, the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped, the formulas driven from a refuge of lies, the ignorant enlightened. and saints built up in their holy faith. I ask great things of a great God." When is the last time that we have taken time to think and to meditate on God that deeply? This is really something that we need to learn to do. And what I just read really magnifies who God is, but it also humbles us as believers. And when I think of this word magnifies or magnify, I think of a telescope. And how you point this telescope out to something in the distance, a moon, stars, maybe a nebula. And the idea there is that it pulls into greater focus so we can see the details of those celestial bodies much better. And this is what worship does. It magnifies Christ. John the Baptist said, he must increase, I must decrease. So worship must magnify Christ. We need to think great thoughts about God and meditate on them. Far too often we try to bring God down to our level, but He is far greater than that. And it's when we do that, when we begin to meditate and think about who God is, how great He is, that's when we can begin to worship rightly. There's a couple of quotes that I want to read this morning. The first one's from Louis Giglio, someone you may have heard of. He's the pastor of Paschen City Church in Atlanta. He said this, quote, worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who he is what he has done expressed in and by the things that we say in the way that we live." I like that, but I like the next one even better and I actually put it in your bulletin if you want to follow along. It's from William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He lived from 1881 to 1944 and this is what he wrote. Quote, worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose. And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable." So basically what we're seeing here is that worship begins and it ends with God. And that takes place in our hearts. And we have to examine ourselves and we need to ask ourselves a very serious question. Who or what do I love most? Jesus put it this way. For where your heart, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Luke 12, 34. Another thing that came to mind is the shorter Westminster Catechism. The very first question is this, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is simply, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And the scriptural proof to that I have noted in that scripture reference, 1 Corinthians 10.31 Romans 11.36 and Psalm 73, 25-28. Now I know my introduction has been a little lengthy this morning, but as my title of the message, which I have taken from a book by the same name, Worship Matters. It matters to God and therefore it should matter to you and to me. And so where does authentic worship begin? It begins in our hearts. And so I want to talk about really three things, there's four, but the first three things are this. A prerequisite to authentic worship. Preparation for authentic worship. participation for authentic worship, and then the fourth one is a portrait of authentic worship, where we get to see an example of what this looks like. So let's begin with the prerequisite to authentic worship. When God created man, He created us in His image. Therefore, we are created to worship. So we are going to worship something or someone. But due to the fall of Adam and Eve when they sinned, now all of a sudden we find ourselves in one of two camps. We're either worshiping self because we are in our sin, Or as a believer, we are going to worship God. That is our goal and what we should strive for. But what we see is that God is actively redeeming and making worshipers out of rebels. And it's through Christ's sacrifice on the cross that is a means to restore men and women to proper worship. Before Adam and Eve fell, they had sweet communion with God, the Creator. And through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, we can once again have that sweet communion with God the Father. But we have to be born again. In John 3, verses 1-19, we won't read all that. This is the account of when Jesus and Nicodemus met at night. Nicodemus had questions, but Jesus got right to the point in verse 3 and he says you must be born again So our heart has to be transformed. It has to be made right before God in order for us to worship But this is God's work. This is what He does. He is drawing people to Himself. He wants to bring us back. It's His will that all men should be saved. Unfortunately, some do not respond to Him. Only a true believer can worship God authentically and rightly. And so we must believe the Gospel. And the Gospel is very simple. And we see that in three texts that I'm referencing this week. And that is, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3.16. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6, 23. And then if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Romans 10, 9 through 11. So the conclusion then is simple. What Jesus said to Nicodemus, we must be born again in order to have authentic worship of the God who created us. The second thing is that there's a preparation for authentic worship. And this begins with the right view of God, who God is. And we have to begin with what we already sang this morning. God is holy. And His command to us is that we also be holy. We see that in Leviticus 19, verse 2, where He says, Be holy, for I am holy. And holiness means more than just separation. It means being separated for and to God. And if we think about the sacrificial system that we read about in the Old Testament, it was all pointing to the fact that God is holy and our need to be holy. But the New Testament, Christ came, and He became that sacrifice once for all on the cross. He lived a perfect life. He was hung on a cross, and He died for our sins, because He never sinned, and His blood shed for us makes us holy. We need to respond to Him in that by trusting Him for our salvation. And when we do that, what that does is it makes us holy before God. Now, if we look in the mirror, we probably go, boy, I'm not very holy sometimes. That's true. We live in a sin-fallen world. We're still human. We still have to deal with that depravity of sin in our lives. But positionally before God, what He sees is the blood of Christ. Therefore, we are holy before Him. That doesn't give us an excuse to not attempt and try to be as holy as possible. We ought to. Because one day we are going to be in His presence and our holiness will be fully known. As I said before, authentic worship magnifies Christ and I used the illustration of the telescope. because it brings those things in the distance into greater view and greater detail. Well, that is what the scriptures do for us, for God. It magnifies God and it brings who He is in greater focus for us so we can understand better who He is and we see that in Psalm 103 and we see that in Psalm 145. We also see that creation all around us magnifies God and who He is, and we see that detailed in Romans chapter 1. And John Piper, in his book Desiring God, on his chapter regarding worship, he wrote this, the only affections that magnify God's value are those that come from a true apprehension of his glory. If the feast of worship is rare in the land, it is because there is a famine of the word of God. Amos 8, 11 through 12. Let's think about who God is when we have a right view of God. We don't have time to go through all the characteristics and attributes of God. But I've selected four things. The first we've already mentioned this morning. We see it in Revelation 4.8. God is holy, holy, holy. We also see in Revelation 6.10 that God is sovereign amongst other places in the scriptures. And he has providence over our lives and over this world. There's an attribute that I love how A. W. Tozer describes it, and it's the eminence of God. And this is what Tozer wrote. He says, quote, God is above all things, beneath all things. God is above, but he's not pushed up. He's beneath, but He's not pressed down. He's outside, but He's not excluded. He's inside, but He's not confined. God is above all things, presiding. Beneath all things, sustaining. He's outside of all things, embracing. And inside of all things, filling. That is the eminence of God. Name me another person in this world that fits that description. There's none, because God is not like us. The fourth thing is this, that God is awesome. Think about that word awesome, awe, that reverent fear of who God is. I learned this many years ago in Florida, about this word awesome, that we throw it around like candy. The instruction was we probably should not use the word awesome unless it's in the context of describing God, and I think that is very good advice. Because we throw it around, we say this was awesome, that was awesome, but that's not God. Yeah, it may have been nice, it may have been good, but only God is awesome. So we have to train our hearts to worship biblically. And yesterday, Andrew, Chris, and I were meeting and we were discussing a few things. And one of them, believe it or not, came up was worship. And Chris made a comment about how we have become very casual in our worship today. which I think is a very good assessment. And it has caused my mind to go back to Leviticus chapters 8, 9, and 10. I don't have them in your sheet. But in Leviticus chapter 8 and 9, we see a very lengthy preparation time, where God has instructed Moses, consecrate Aaron and his sons. Because I'm going to show myself to you today. And so Moses did that. He consecrated Aaron, and then Aaron consecrated his four sons as priests. And this took many days to do. And all throughout chapters 8 and 9, you see something repeated because consecration is extremely important for even us as believers today to consecrate ourselves before God. But there's also this requirement of obedience. And several times in chapter 8 and 9, you see that Moses obeyed the command of the Lord. Obedience is a must. Well, what happened at the end of chapter 9 is verse 24. And we read, And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the offering. And the people shouted and fell down. Think about that. Can you imagine if fire came out from before the Lord in this place and consumed our offering? Yeah. I don't know that I would shout, except out of maybe fear, but I would definitely hit the ground. That is what happened because God accepted the worship. He accepted the offering. But sadly, you have chapter 10 in the first five verses. two of Aaron's sons, his oldest two sons, which is significant, they thought they were all that and a bag of chips. And they offered what the New American Standard Version calls, strange fire before the Lord. Well, that was very casual. And so how did God respond? Fire came out from before the Lord and consumed Aaron's sons. Casual worship is an abomination to God. We should take serious note about this. Because God accepted worship and He consumed. God rejected worship and He also consumed. What does that mean for us? What it means is God is going to consume us. We just need to allow Him to accept our worship and consume us in such a way that we are totally devoted to Him. We also need to focus our attention on scripture and mining the truths of scripture and studying them and reading them often. Every day is really what I would say. And there's treasure in the scriptures. It's vital for the life of the believer to be engrossed in these words that are in what we call the Bible. We sang in the heart of worship that we need to have something of worth to give back to God. Well, how can we give back to God something that we don't possess? We get it from the Word when it gets into us. Then we have something to give back to God that is worthy of Him. It's a godly discipline and it requires us to be diligent to do it. Do you remember when Jesus was speaking to the scribe? In Mark 12, 29 to 30. And this is what Jesus said to him. The most important is, and what he was saying is the most important commandment is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Referring to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. If that verse that we just read, loving the Lord with all your heart, mind, and strength, and soul, is very important because it's actually in scriptures at least eight times. So, when you see something repeated, make note. But it speaks to a total devotion to God and including our duty to obey all of His commandments. See, we need to worship God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And do so with the same intensity that we love God. And these four capacities that are listed in this verse, they overlap in meaning, but they are not identical. When we think of our heart, we think of that inner man, the affections, and our will. When we think of the soul, we think of the activities of the mind, will, and character. And when we think of our minds, it's that faculty of understanding, it's where we feel things, and where we desire things. And then our strength is that ability, the force and the abundance that we have, those vigorous efforts both physically and mentally. And so all of our capacity needs to be focused in worship of God. We worship God with everything and all of our being and intellect. Our worship is an indication and will reveal how much we treasure Christ. We're not to be blind worshipers. We are to be informed worshipers. John Piper again sums this up like this, quote, Jesus's demand to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength means that every impulse and every act of every faculty and every capacity should be an expression of treasuring God above all things. And the way we can treasure Christ and treasure Christ above all things is to regularly, daily be worshiping Him. How do we worship God? It's not just what we do here on Sunday morning. This is just a fraction We worship God every day by reading the scriptures, by singing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs to ourselves and to the Lord. Do you know that when you work your job, if you're doing it faithfully for the Lord, that is an act of worship. When you're ministering to your friends and others, and you're doing it with the right heart for God, it is an act of worship. And when we do these things, it helps us grow further and deeper in love with God and His Son, Jesus Christ. See, if you want to have strong affections for God, and you want to grow and strengthen them, they must be rooted in and shaped by the truth of Scripture. Because Scripture is the bone and marrow of biblical worship. So to review this morning, the prerequisite is this, we must be born again. We must know Christ as our Savior in order to have authentic worship. But we need to be preparing ourselves for authentic and genuine worship. We need to learn to treasure Christ joyfully, moment by moment. We need to strive to make every moment holy. But preparing for worship is not the end game. We also must participate in worship. Now, it's hard to draw a line between preparation and participation because they really go hand in hand. But to participate in authentic worship, we have to be present. And what do I mean when I say present? I'm thinking of a couple of things. The first thing is that we engage our mind, or our intellects, and our spirit. You see, we can't mail in worship. Yes, we can go through the motions, we can say the right things, even do the right things, But if that's all it is, you're just mailing it in. That is casual worship, and we've already discussed what God thinks of that. Think about what the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, said in chapter 29, verse 3. He says, this people draw near with their mouth and they honor me with their lips. In other words, they know what to say and what to do. But then he says, while their hearts are far from me. We don't want that to be our description. We want to worship Him in spirit and truth, as we've read earlier. We have to remember that we are made in God's image, as I said before. We are made to worship. So we need to engage our heart and our head. We need to engage our emotions and our thoughts. In other words, we engage with our whole being because authentic worship includes all these things. When we're at home and in our private prayer closet, as some would call it, the time where we're going to spend with the Lord one-on-one, that is a time where we can engage with Him in private worship. We get alone with Him. We're reading His Word. We're praying. And He's shaping our character and molding us more and more into His image. And that is all working as an act of worship. developing that character so we can know who we are when no one is watching. But we also worship together publicly, like we're doing here this morning when we come into this sanctuary to sing, to pray, to hear the word proclaimed. All of these things are to be an act of worship, and we should always pray that the Lord would find our worship together as acceptable to Him. But unfortunately, there are so many who say they are believers, but they do not come to the public gathering. to worship together. But the writer to the Hebrews wrote this in chapter 10, verse 23 to 25. He says, let us hold fast to confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love in good works. How do you do that if you're not together? He continues, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. What is the writer saying when he says the day is drawing near? He's speaking to the day when Christ returns and our salvation becomes, our faith becomes sight. We have a need within us. God put it there for us to worship and to worship Him specifically. And so we need our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us in this regard because it's when we're together where we find encouragement one to another. We find comfort from one another. We get strength from one another. And we also gain a deeper knowledge and relationship with God through the community of the saints. So we must be intentional in our worship. And when I think of intentional, the first thing that came to my mind was when Jesus was talking to Martha. You remember that story where Martha comes complaining to Jesus because her sister, excuse me, Mary comes complaining to Jesus because her sister Martha is not helping her in the kitchen and getting food and stuff together? What was Jesus' response? I don't know if he responded in this kind of tone, but this is kind of how I hear it when I read it. Martha, Martha, you are so anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. What had Mary chosen? She was sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ, listening to Him. Martha wasn't wrong in trying to be a servant and helping people and preparing food. But what Jesus was saying, all that's well and good, but what's really important is you should be right here, listening to Me. So we need to be intentional, sit at the feet of Jesus and learn. Learn to be, or we must be genuine in our worship. Learn to delight ourselves in the Lord, as Psalm 33, Psalm 37, 4 tells us. And as we read our text this morning, authentic worship has to be done in spirit and in truth. John 4, 23 to 24, we read it earlier. But verse 24, it says, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. And this is what separates authentic worship from that of emotionalism. But I don't want you to mishear me. Worship, authentic worship is not void of emotion. Not at all. Rather, our emotion is a direct response to God's glory as it is made known to us in greater and greater degrees. And that is accomplished through the reading of His Word and experiencing God in real life. Did you catch that? Experiencing God in real life and the things that we do. When we're out and about, seeing God's glory everywhere we look. If you take time to look, you'll see it. And all of creation displays God's glory. Take time to notice those little things each day that show us God's glory. Remember when I mentioned the shorter Westminster Catechism, what is the chief end of man? Well, in John Piper's book Desiring God, he takes that answer and he changes one word that I think is very significant. It actually I think is better. This is what Piper, how Piper writes it. The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. That word by is an action word. We're involved, we're doing something that is glorifying God. It's important to do that. But as we close this morning, I want to close with a portrait of authentic worship. And if you want to follow along, I'm going to read Revelation chapter 4, and then I'm going to read part of Revelation chapter 5. And this is a portrait of what authentic worship looks like. So beginning in verse 1 of chapter 4 of Revelation, After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, and one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like that of an eagle in flight. And by the way, in Isaiah chapter 6, these same creatures were described there. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes, and all around and within, and day and night, they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. I look over in verse 9 of chapter 5. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the voices of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped. Is your voice going to be in with what I just read? I pray and I hope so. Let's pray.