Who's the King?

Today's message at Rock Harbor was one of the best on worship.  It affirmed what I've learned [academically], but it also spoke to my heart.  Over the last year, I've been torn down over and over again by God on worship.  What was my theology on it and how do I practice it?  It's safe to say that before I went down this journey, I always viewed worship as a secondary thought to theological heavy weights such as love, advocacy, relational wholeness, and service.  The Holy Spirit has really guided me to believe and understand that these issues are are not separate from worshiping Him.

The whole idea of worship sounds all too familiar - some Matt Redman and Tim Hughes songs before and after service and voila!  Worship set.  Throw in a good prayer here and there and it's good bread that surrounds the meat [message] of Sunday service.  And with lo-carb diets in fad, worship is really just fluff, unneeded in the world of the theologically sound.  That's obviously an extreme and not too many followers truly believe that, but there is some truth to that view.  But God is looking for worshipers:

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship your Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship Him.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.  John 4:21-24

This passage blew any preconceived notion for me on worship.  It had a context now.  God seeks worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and truth.  Todd Proctor, lead pastor at RH, gave a great example today of worship.  He likened it to a U2 concert, where people are there waiting in anticipation of the group.  And when they come on stage, the arena is electric.  Fans go wild and figuratively, they begin their worship.  The band hasn't played a note.  Bono has not sung a word.  And yet, U2's presence is felt.  So large that people scream and yell.  Isn't it sad then, that many today go to worship service with the attitude of "prove it to me again God?"  Or, put the mood music on so I can really worship.  God is not seeking those kinds of worshipers.  The anticipation to come before God, to feel His presence, doesn't make us scream or shout.  It makes us come and want to dump our problems on to Him.  And although He is the healer and He wants that from us, we have placed worship for people like Bono, because let's face it, Bono is really cool.  Bono challenges the way we live.  And Bono is, well, Bono.

So the question bares itself in who we prostrate ourselves in worship to?  Many times, the King who is expectant of our worship receives our troubles, our self doubts, and our wants and desires.  That's all good, but then, He is no longer our King.  The King is inevitably, ourselves.  It is what is going on for us that matters.  It is what we need that matters.  It is no longer about God and the mere presence of Him that makes us fall face down in wonder and awe.  His presence only gives us permission to tell Him how important we are.  It's tough for us to look beyond ourselves because the enemy has made it hard to focus on anything else.  The fall of Adam was all about us [as people] and how we can be God.

God not only deserves our worship, He seeks it.  He doesn't need it as He so poignantly describes in Isaiah 50.  He doesn't need our worship, but He delights in it.  He was meant to be Israel's one and only King, but we rejected that idea.  We saw other nations having Kings and we felt that for us to be a nation, we too had to have a monarch rule over us.  Revelations gave us an idea of what worship ought to be like:

Day and night, they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 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 for ever, and ever.  They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory, honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."  Revelations 4:9-11

He is our King, who sits on the throne who is worshiped for ever, and ever.  He is worthy.  We must get off the throne and allow God to sit on the throne, His rightful place in our lives.