How can you respond to this week’s sermon?
You can hear the two sermons on Revelation 4:1-11 through our church’s web-site:
Heaven Help Our Worship – The Atmosphere of Heaven – Rev 4:1-6
Heaven Help Our Worship – The Activity of Heaven – Rev 4:6-11
Revelation 4 is a brilliant description of God”™s supremacy and a picturesque vision of the purest worship of God. God”™s authority, centrality, mercy, redemption, judgment, omniscience, transcendence, and sovereignty are all stunningly described as the very atmosphere of heaven.
The activity of heaven responds to God”™s blazing centrality with an intense, focused exaltation of who He is. Here is the pinnacle of corporate praise. The entire scene begs the question as to whether our weekly earthly gatherings mirror the emphases we see happening unceasingly in heaven.
Our two sermons on Revelation 4 delved into the details of the passage and called us to consider how central God is in our affections, our vocabulary, our prayers, our music, our conversations, and our mindset when we gather with God”™s people on the Lord”™s Day.
How can we grow in our worship of God on earth so that our gatherings are more reflective of the worship that happens in heaven?
Something to Know
Increase your understanding of who God is
- Simply reading through the Bible, particularly the Old Testament has helped me with this. For example, while reading through Old Testament books, underline every time the narrator (in the historical books) indicates that God did something. You will be amazed at what God does ““ and thus see His attributes on display.
- Read some excellent books on the nature and attributes of God. Below are a listing of several of them with links to Amazon if you wish to purchase.
Books on God
Some things to Do
- Saturate your prayers with the nature of God. Read through one psalm each day and begin making a list of the attributes of God you see in each. Make them the basis for beginning your time of prayer. Reflect back to God who he is and meditate on how the particular attributes you are seeing should impact you and the unique circumstances of your life.
- Meditate on the implications of God”™s nature within your life, family, employment, and status, your church, your nation, and current world events. Write them out.
- Read Job 38, 40, 42 ““ how did Job”™s perspective on his life change when his vision of who God was increased? What about your perspective on your life?
- Think through the songs, lyrics, and how they were played and sung this past Sunday click for pdf . How do they reflect the intensity of the worship of God found in Revelation 4?
- How did the public prayers from the Lord”™s Day encourage you in your worship of God, or in expanding your vision of who God is?
- How could your conversations with people at church have been more reflective of
- What keeps you from being more intense in your focus, vocabulary, and emotions as you worship with God”™s people on the Lord”™s Day?
- How can you be mindful of encouraging others as you expressed intense and focused exaltation of God?
Someone to Be
- What did the throne room scene reveal about your affections, intensity in worship, focus when exalting God? What about your own character was exposed or needs to be strengthened?
- The 24 elders, who are angelic representatives of all of the redeemed, display incredible humility in their worship as they cast their crowns before the throne and bow themselves down in worship. When was the last time you were so overwhelmed with the nature and character of God that you found your heart humbled ““ perhaps to the point that it drove you to literally bow in honor of God?
- What is keeping your heart from complete humility before others and ultimately before God?
How did these sermons affect you and your approach to gathering with God’s people on the Lord’s Day?
Some helpful resources on worship:
