This week, we’re exploring how a church community should be committed to connectedness to God in worship.

Humans will never be more connected to God than in the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God.  The Bible includes the book of Revelation, which recounts John’s vision of the kingdom of heaven.  Here’s what he described about angels, and then humans:

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE Lord GOD ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME.”  Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever,  the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:  “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:8-11)

Even in the kingdom, there is worship.  The word may not appear in this reading, but the core meaning is there.  Worship means “to give worth to something.”  And the words “you are worthy” are right at the beginning of the words the elders say in their heavenly worship.

You can tell what someone values by how they spend money, time.  You can see what’s worth their limited resources.  Worship is spending our limited time on God.  It’s an expression of love.

In our Marriage and Parenting courses, we introduce the five love languages.  Some communicate and receive love through words, touch, acts of service, time, and others through gifts.

In the same way, we can show love to God through various “languages”.  Worship includes prayer, and music, confessing sins, asking forgiveness, reminding ourselves what we believe, reading the Bible together, and more.  All aspects of how communities of Christians worship.

These are all ways to communicate God’s worth in our eyes.  You can see it in this reading.  The elders say, “You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power” but then they tell him why: he is the creator of everything.

He knows all this, of course.  But this is a time for humans, mortals, to feed that back to him.  To acknowledge he is at the cetner of our lives, not the periphery, and we’re not going to deny it.

Question: How do you know someone values you?  What do they say, do, or not?

Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - October 1, 2013

Tuesday - Study It - Acquaintances to Partners

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:34-40 ESV Spoiler Alert – Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the Internship, and still want to! The premise of the Internship, is that a competition for a Google internship. It essentially comes down to a team of misfits and a pompous rich kid and his team of stars. The bad guy makes it clear he doesn’t have time for anyone but those he thinks are important. This becomes most clear in his interactions with a scruffy headphone guy who is painfully shy, and never listens to music but wears the headphones because it lets him keep to himself. One of the two bumbling protagonists goes out of his way to befriend headphone guy, while the pompous villain makes fun of him. At the final announcement of who won the internship, the pompous guy can’t believe he lost, and interrupts the announcement to say, “lets get someone down here who matters.” Headphone guy appears, is revealed to be the head of a major department at Google, and he’s been listening to the whole thing. He tells the villain – you haven’t shown very much googliness. We learned earlier in the movie, this googliness is all about community and creativity. But the villain says, “what does that even mean?” The headphone guy sums it up, “The fact you don’t even know is why you’ll never work here.” Jesus says this about his kingdom. Compassion is a sign that you get what my kingdom is all about. Its part of kingdomliness. The way you treat those who don’t seem important, is actually very important. Jesus even puts himself in their shoes – says it’s like you’re serving him when you serve others. He goes so far as to say that this is how he sorts out those who want to be in his kingdom, with him, and those who want to take a pass. He says its like separating sheep and goats – the ones who want to be in his kingdom will act like it, and those who don’t, won’t. He says this twice, and I only read one version here, which is the positive describing who gets in, but he also tells the story in the negative, describing who stays out. What becomes clear is that we choose God’s kingdom, or separation from him, not just with words but with actions. We’ll see tomorrow how this applies to our neighbours. Question: How do these six actions benefit the recipient, the doer, and Jesus?

From Series: "Won't You Be My Neighbour?"

Discuss

More Messages From Ryan Sim...

Powered by Series Engine