Worship isn’t spiritual worship if it doesn’t contain thanksgiving and adoration. This devotional reading looks at more elements we are to use to make worship habitual – thankful, continuous, eternal praise.
Nuggets
- We will be worshiping God in thanksgiving and adoration through all eternity.
- We were created to worship God.
- Every creature in Heaven is going to worship God.
Moving day came and went. Most of the furniture that was supposed to come came, but the furniture that was supposed to go to storage hasn’t gone yet.
But we are here and somewhat arranged. A lot of things are still in boxes, but hey. They are here.
That was why I was kind of glad the verses Charnock picked for this point didn’t have a lot of sermons associated with them. It made it easier to go through.
But then I thought Charnock might have been better served to pick some other verses. I included them, so let’s see what we have.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Finding Jesus through Spiritual Worship study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this series is Menander and Charnock’s Spiritual Worship.
Resource
Continuous, Eternal Worship
“They were calling out to each other, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!’” (Isa. 6: 3 NLT)
We will be worshiping God in thanksgiving and adoration through all eternity.
First things first. The they is referring to the seraphim. Seraphim are winged angels, possibly in the form of serpents, that praise God while they attend God’s throne.
Yeah, it had never sunk in — if I didn’t skim over it — that seraphim were like serpents. Does that make Satan a seraphim? Is that full circle then?
Someone on a higher pay grade than me has to answer those questions.
The seraphim are tasked with praising God. They praise Him because of His holiness. Holiness is one of God’s attributes.
Praise is our response to God, but it usually involves music.
Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity and intense dedication and commitment that lead to our being set apart through consecration to mold to God’s Will.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
To read a devotion in the Finding Our Center series to see God’s attributes, click on the button below.
Driver described holiness in this way. He wrote, “Holiness denotes, fundamentally, a state of freedom from all imperfection, specially from all moral imperfection; a state, moreover, [realized] with such intensity as to imply not only the absence of evil, but antagonism to it. It is more than goodness, more than purity, more than righteousness; it embraces all these in their ideal completeness, but it expresses besides the recoil from everything which is their opposite.”
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What got me is it can’t just be the absence of sin. Holiness has to be the presence of God.
Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Glossary
We worship because of that holiness. We are adoring God’s perfection.
Yes, God’s perfection is highlighted because of our imperfections. God accepts that — for now.
We have to look in Revelation to see the impact of this verse. “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes 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!’” (Rev. 4: 8 ESV).
This is going to be continuous worship in Heaven. This verse says it will come from the four living creatures.
I, personally, don’t think that cuts us out.
What did Paul say in Thessalonians? “Pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5: 17 ESV). We aren’t expected to worship God continuously here but give that up when we hit the pearly gates. We will still be praising God.
That, too, will never cease.
Created for Worship
“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” (Rev. 4: 11 NLT)
We were created to worship God.
Hmmm. I don’t know if I like this translation. I think it is trying to say God created whatever He wanted to create how He wanted to create it.
That is true.
But I first read that as saying we were created because we were great.
It sounds like we are the most important and greatest.
We aren’t. God is.
Let’s try this. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and [honor] and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4: 11 KJV).
We were created for the pleasure of God. We were created to worship Him. “The people I formed for myself will declare my praise” (Isa. 43: 21 CSB).
No, that doesn’t make God selfish. God created us through love.
Woodford explained this. He wrote, “Creation is the most overwhelming demonstration that ‘God is Love’; creation is the ‘Ocean of Divine love,’ overflowing its banks, and pouring itself forth beyond all bounds.”
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We were created because of Who God is. That should lead us to worship Him.
All Will Worship
“And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.’ And the four living beings said, ‘Amen!’ And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb” (Rev. 5: 13-14 NLT)
Every creature in Heaven is going to worship God.
Here we go. See? Every creature.
God is going to be sitting on His throne. Jesus, as the Lamb, is going to be right there with Him.
Both deserve our worship and praise.
Why does Jesus deserve our worship? He was the Sacrifice that secured our redemption.
Redemption is where God bestows His gift of grace on us in order to deliver us from sin.
- Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Glossary
Russell said it this way. He wrote, “Similar acknowledgments will be called forth when the saints in heaven remember THEIR SINS as the procuring cause of the [Savior’s] sufferings.”
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We will remember how unworthy we are and see how worthy He is. Paul told us what the response will be. “For the Scriptures say, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God’” (Rom. 14: 11 NLT).
It is only through our acceptance of God’s Plan of Salvation that we can develop the dormant holiness, righteousness, and perfection that is within us because we were made in His image.
Glossary
Those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer will be worshiping God for eternity.
Making the Connections
Charnock said that thanksgiving and adoration are essential for building spiritual habits leading to spiritual worship. That is logical to me.
We aren’t going to worship something for which we are not thankful. Unless we adore Someone, we won’t submit ourselves to Him.
When we think about having faith, that is taking knowledge to the next step. Adoration takes love to the next step.
Thanksgiving intensifies worship.
How Do We Apply This?
- Use the thanksgiving to intensify worship.
- Take the next steps to faith, love, and adoration.
- Use these to test our character – that which we are sanctifying.
- Give up worldly materialism.
- Service to others should be the product of thanksgiving and adoration.
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Father God. We thank You for Your love. When mankind disobeyed You, You didn’t have to design the Plan of Salvation to save us – but You did. For that reason alone, we adore You. Forgive us when we start feeling that entitles us to things. We only want to sing Your praises for eternity. Amen.
What do you think?
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