The Four Faces of Worship | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

Revelation chapter four, let's look at verse six, verses one through five. The Bible says that John was taken up in the spirit and he got a vision of the throne of God. Really, he got a sense of worship in heaven. And it says, in the center around the throne were four living creatures or angels covered with eyes in the front and the back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. And the third had a face like a man. And the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of these angels had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night, they never stopped saying, that's so beautiful to me, that this is the anthem of heaven. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory, honor, power, for you created all things and by your will, they were created and have their being. I wanna talk to you about four faces of worship.

You know, one of the things that seems to happen in church life or in the body of Christ is worship can be a real divisive thing. A lot of people believe there should be no emotion to worship, other people, it's all emotion. But there is a biblical way to approach worship. There's a theological way, Theo, God, logical, logic. So there's a God logic behind worship. How does God think about worship? What is the logic of God when it comes to worship? Well, we're not supposed to worship him ignorantly. We're not supposed to worship him based on the style of a church or a denominational preference or even your personal preference. There is a theology behind worship. In Acts chapter 17, there's a great example of Paul the Apostle goes to the city of Athens, he goes up on Mars Hill, and they were worshiping, what the Bible says is an idol statue that underneath this idol statue, it said to the unknown God. And so Paul begins to talk to them about this idol, this unknown God, and he is saying to them, you're worshiping ignorantly. And then he begins to talk about who God is. He talks about how he created the heavens and the earth, how he gave us breath in our lungs. He goes into Jesus and the cross and the resurrection. And he introduces them to this God.

And his point was simply that this is the God we are to worship and we are not to worship him ignorantly. So when you come to church and the goal of church is that maybe you like the songs or you like the singer or you like something about it, and so then it prompts you to worship or maybe the preaching is good enough that it prompts you to worship or you determine that I didn't really like the worship or I didn't really like the message. And so with a critical eye, you leave church disappointed because it didn't meet your standard. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Well, the problem is that's terrible theology when it comes to worship. When it comes to worship and really when it comes to church, the question isn't whether you like it or does it fit your preferences, it's really the question is, does God like it? What is God's preference? So instead of seeing yourself in the audience with your critical standard, determining whether or not it all meets your standard before you leave and talk about it and discuss it, which we've all done, by the way, you gotta see God as the audience. There's an audience of one. And if you wanna know the judgment or what is being measured or what is being critiqued when it comes to a church service,

it's not the preaching, it's not the singer, you're the audience. God, you're not the audience, you're the one that God is looking to, to determine whether or not He wants to inhabit our praises. Are you here? So it's very important that you understand God's the audience, you are not. You and I are participating in honoring and giving Him glory, and He's the one that walks away saying, ah, I'm not really sure they gave me their best today. I'm not really sure they meant what they were saying. God is the one that is the standard setter for our worship. So everywhere, every day, you're called to worship. When you show up on Sunday, and you're waiting for it to be turned on, and then you leave on Sunday, and you turn it off, you're missing it. It's to be turned on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So when you come in on Sunday, it's just the fruit of a lifestyle of worship that you're living. You can have church on wheels in your car. You can have church in the woods. You can worship anywhere, any place, any time. God is in the audience, and He's looking, and He's wondering, and He's seeking, the Bible says, for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Anywhere you go, you can worship. I hope you worship here, but Abraham worshiped under a tree. Adam worshiped in a garden. Moses worshiped beside a burning bush. Jonah worshiped in the belly of a fish. Noah worshiped in the ark. Paul worshiped on the side of a road. Zacchaeus climbed up in a tree, went out on a limb, and there he worshiped. The point is, we need to know about worship. God is not interested in us being ignorant or not knowledgeable about worship. We need to know how to worship, and there's a reason for it. So to help you understand this real quick, heard this many years ago. To me, it makes so much sense to understand what worship is. So there's a story of a woman. She's in this major fire. The fire department's called. The fireman climbs up the ladder, rescues this girl from the burning flames of this fire. She gets down. Several days go by. She thinks, I need to thank the guy who saved me from that fire. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. So she makes the arrangement, goes and says, thank you so much.

You know, I was so scared without you. I wouldn't be here. And unexpectedly, there's a connection between this woman and this man, and so they decide to meet again, and then they meet again, and then they meet. But eventually, she falls for him. They fall in love, and they get married. So prayer is when she's standing in the window. The fire is about to devour her, and she's saying, help. I need help. I can't get out of this on my own. I'd die if I'm on my own. That's prayer. Praise is when she says, you know what? I probably should go back and say thank you to the one that pulled me out of those flames. I should probably say thank you to the one that rescued me, and I should probably get face-to-face with him and let him know what he means to me and let him know that I would not be here had it not been for his willingness with courage to come up there and pull me out of those flames. But worship is when you fall in love, and you put a ring on it, and you get committed to it, and you marry into it, and you make the decision that all that I am is to respond to all that he is. That means all my emotion, all my strength, all my might, all my mind, everything that I've got, even my very life, I am to give to him in worship.

Psalms 47 says, shout and clap your hands. To clap your hands, all ye people, and to shout unto God with the voice of triumph. This is how God desires to be worshiped. You say, well, I don't wanna shout. God's not asking you. Well, that's not my personality. God's not checking in on our personalities. He's not checking in on our comfort level. Well, that's just not my style. Style means nothing when it comes to the things of God. I worship out of how he says to worship, how he commands me to worship. Well, that's all right. But there's a reason. It's not just shouting for no reason. I'm not just clapping for no, there is a reason. And again, our problem in church is we come in and we're just like Acts chapter 17, where we go up and we worship ignorantly because we have an unknown way about how we're worshiping. What is it that God wants? What is it that pleases him? Psalms 149 says, praise him in the dance. The Lord takes pleasure in his saints. Psalms 150, let us be joyful. Let the high praises of God be in our mouth and a two-edged sword speaking of the word in our hand. And he said, let them praise him with excellence, not mediocrity, not throwing crumbs, not average,

not let me, you know, not we'll see, no, with excellence. That's I'm giving him my best. I'm giving him my best. I'm not going to give the bangles more than I give him. I'm not going to give the reds more than I give him. I love every time I meet somebody and every preacher uses this and it's so overused, I hate to mention it. But every time I meet somebody that talks about it's too loud, it's too this. When you get in your car and you turn on that 70s, 60s, 80s, whatever, and you turn that stuff up and you roll the window down, you sorry dog. And then you come into church and you act all sophisticated and you think that Bon Jovi deserves your highest praise and that's where your excellence goes. And I don't know any music after the 80s. So I'm not going to talk to the next generation because to me, music stopped in 1989. Everything after that, you can have it. Praise and worship is mentioned 355 times in the Bible. The text that we read says, when you get to heaven and you look at the throne of God, you'll see angelic hosts that are there worshiping around the throne. And the question is why? Why is that what they're doing? Why are they crying out worthy, holy? What is the point? It's because they can see God.

They can see what pleases Him. And because they can see what pleases Him is worship. That's what they offer Him. So it starts out by saying that John in verse one and two, it says that John was, that a voice called out to him and he was in the spirit. So the first thing about worship is you have to realize there is another world besides this world. I'm walking on this stage, you're walking on the carpet, you're sitting in that seat. This is the natural world, but there is another world and he was taken up into, you can tap into another world. That's what worship does. But you have to get in the spirit. You don't wait for the spirit of God to move you. You have to get into it. God is a motion sensitive God. Have you ever gone up to one of those doors that opens before you walk in the store and you wave your hand in front of it and it opens and then you get away and it closes or you're trying to get the elevator door to open back up so you put your hand in there because there's something that, well, you come into church and you don't do anything. The Bible says he draws near to those who draw near to him. So there is movement on your side. You're not just lifeless. When problems come, you get in the spirit. When temptation comes, you get in the spirit.

When the desire to give up and quit comes, you get in the spirit. You walk in the spirit so you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For you to sit around and think to yourself that I'm waiting for God to do something, I'm waiting for God to move me is like saying I'm in the middle of a storm, there's a tornado coming, I'm upstairs and I'm waiting for the basement to get into me. No, you get in the basement. Or you die. You get in the spirit. You take the fire poker and you put it in the fire and if it's there long enough, the fire gets in it. You don't just show up and hope it happens. you make a decision, I'm going to get in the spirit. And then it says, when he did that, he saw four things, four faces, the lion, the ox, the eagle, and the man. So first he saw the lion. That's the first face of worship, is the face of a lion. Lorne and I recently, just a couple weeks ago, I got invited to preach in South Africa. And the church that I was there with said, would you be interested, it's such a long flight here, would you be interested in staying a couple days over and going on a safari? We have a connection and we just kind of let that be part of your trip with us.

And I was like, let me call Lorne, you know, she loves that kind of stuff. And so Lorne was able to go with me. And so this is the first morning we wake up, it's like 5 a.m., and you're not really guaranteed what you'll see or not see. And they kind of let you know if, you know, they kind of set your expectations pretty low. And we drive out that first morning and it's dark, it's cold, you're on this gravel, dirt road, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, in this buggy, there's no windows, there's nothing to guard you, nothing to protect you. And you're driving down this road and all of a sudden, the light beams of that thing catch a lion about a football field away, walking down the road. And they immediately shut off the lights, pull over to the side of the road. They said they might throw something up. These are not the good ones, the real experience, so this is another time in the day. So that just shows you how close they were. But that's not the good, the good one, I was shaking, I thought I pushed record on my phone and, I didn't. But this is what happened the first time, it's completely dark. A football field away, one lion comes out and then a second lion and then the third lion. And I'm thinking to myself, surely they're gonna see us,

they're gonna go off into the woods somewhere. Like they're not gonna come right at us. Like they know we're there, they're gonna, or at least they're gonna be somewhat, they're gonna show some timidity or something. They're gonna show some kind of like, I'm not sure who you are. And they just keep walking down the road, right? Like we're not even there, like we don't even exist. Walk past the driver, the second row, people third row, I'm in the third row. On the side where the lions are on the bat. So if a lion's gonna yank somebody out, it's, I'm the preferred choice. So I've already done the evaluating, can I take that girl on the second seat in front of me and throw her to the lions? They gotta eat. And that lion gets right beside, again, a football field away, they've been walking the whole time, they've not stopped, they've not looked over anywhere, they've just walked down the road. It gets right beside me, it stops and then looks at me. It's there for about 30 or 45 seconds and I'm sitting there in my mind going through it, my heart's pounding. I know they can smell fear, I think, I've heard that somewhere. And in my mind, I'm thinking, you gotta settle down,

you're signaling it to it, you're prey, you gotta get some composure here. And then the second one comes, same thing, it never stopped walking, it comes and it does the same thing, it just stands there and they're looking at me. And the thing that I walked away from that, thank God I did, but I walked away from that with this. I could not believe how calm and confident the lion was. It didn't even act like we were there. It did not care, it was not, there was nothing in the lion that was worried at all. The face of a lion, the lion knows it's king, the lion knows, and when it roars, that roar goes out five miles and it lets anything and anyone know, hey, this is my territory, if you wanna come into my neighborhood, I just want you to know, I'm ready, I'm waiting, I'll fight, I don't care who you are, I'm not afraid. And we have in us the lion of the tribe of Judah. And the face of a lion understands praise is going on the offense. Praise is with calm confidence making the decision. I want the enemy to know that I have drawn a bloodline and that this is my territory. So fear has no right here. Worry has no right here. Depression has no right. And praise is my way of announcing to the enemy that I'm ready for the fight.

I might not be in the fight, but I'm ready for any fight that comes my way. So every now and then you have to understand praise is like that roar. Genesis 49, Judah, which means praise, it says this, that your hand shall be on the neck of your enemy. When you praise God, you send an invisible hand out and it grabs the enemy by the neck. So the face of the lion, I'm not afraid. I know who my God is. I know what the spirit that I come in is like, and I am, the Bible says, the righteous are as bold as a lion. So sometimes in worship, you're bold, you're courageous, you're unafraid, you're definitely not wimpy, you're not timid. That's the first face of worship. The second face is the face of an ox. If you look up ox, it means strong, it means steadfast, stubborn, or determined. So there are times when you need to have the face of a lion, you're on the offense, you're not in the attack, you're ready for the attack. Other times, you need to be like the ox who puts his head down and he plows through the hard places. He plows through the hard times, the Bible says Judah or praise will plow the way so it breaks up the fallow ground, it breaks up the hard places,

it prepares the soil of your life. Praise is what does that. My preaching cannot fall or God's word cannot fall on a hard heart and prosper. Worship is what breaks up the hardness in your life so when the seed of God's word shows up, it can go into the soil of your heart that's ready and can break the barrenness and produce fruit in your life. So we don't sing for the first 20 minutes just to do it, we're breaking things up, we're plowing the way, plowing through the hard places, plowing through, we're singing about an awesome God, we're singing about Jesus, our great Messiah, our great Redeemer, we're declaring it and it doesn't matter what the resistance is, we are stubborn as an ox when it comes to our worship. We are determined in our worship. Woo! Then he said the face of a flying eagle, not just an eagle, a flying eagle. So sometimes we're like the lion, we go on the attack. Other times we're like the ox, we just have to plow through with our worship, determined. But then he said, I saw the flying eagle. Have you ever looked back on your life and thought to yourself, how did I get through that? How did I get through that time in my life? Have you ever heard that scars don't grow? Did you know that your scars don't grow? If you'll notice any scar that you have on your body,

I've got them all over, I could tell you the stories, but I got 10 minutes, so I don't have time. But I could tell you that I grew, but my scar didn't. So the scar, at one point, I could show my friends and be like, look at this one. Now they're barely visible. Scars don't grow, people do. So when you're saying, how did I get through that? The scar is there, it happened. You can't change that it happened. Nothing is ever going to take away the fact that it's there, but you can grow to a point that that scar, though it's present, you've gotten bigger than that event that happened in your life. And so when it says that you praise God in the spirit or with the face of an eagle, it's saying. And it may never go away what it is that you're facing, but you can get over it. You can have the spirit of an eagle, not a grounded eagle, not a nesting eagle, a flying eagle. And what happens to the eagle when it goes out? The wind is what it's looking to. There's something about the wind. Now I'm guessing, I don't know eagles. I've never talked to an eagle. I can't get into the psyche of an eagle, but I'm guessing it's like we are. It likes those warm summer, nice little breezy days. Just like today, sun's out, beautiful. That's what it prefers.

But every now and then, those violent winds come. Every now and then, that hurricane force wind shows up, and that eagle is not in control of the wind. It's in control of its wings. So whatever the wind is doing, the eagle positions itself with its wings to say, I'm not gonna let the wind push me down beneath the storm. I'm gonna allow the wind to lift me up above the storm. I can't ignore the storm. I can't deny that it's there, but I can get over it. I can get on top of it. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is like the wind. He blows wherever he wishes. So sometimes in life, and God is in all the events of our life, sometimes it's a nice summer breeze in the marriage. Sometimes it's a beautiful summer breeze spiritually. It's a walk in the park. Everything is beautiful. Birds are singing, flowers smell great. Everything's colored. But other times, those violent winds come, and praise is like the flying eagle. It positions you. You can't change the wind. You can't control the wind. You can just, with praise determined, I'm going to get on top of that storm. I'm gonna get over that storm.

Number four, the last face is the face of a man. There are some seasons where you're the mighty lion. You can't wait to roar. Man, God's just blessing your life. Everything's so good. You got your territory. You got everything. Calm and confident. And there are other times it's hard, it's difficult, and you're determined, you're strong, you're stubborn. You're not giving up on what God said he would do, how God said he would come through. You're not seeing it, there's no sign of it, but you're not backing off. There's other times the storm's hit, but you got your position, and you're like the eagle, and you soar above it. But then there are times you're like a man. You're frail, you're full of mistakes. You look at your life and you feel like a failure. You feel like you can't get over that sin in your life. And I'm so glad that when it came to the faces of worship, I'm so glad he gave the face of a lion. I'm so glad he let us know we can roar in our worship, that it sends out that message to the enemy, that we know who we are. I'm so glad he let us have the face of an ox. Just sometimes I don't feel it, but I just gotta stay determined.

And I'm so glad I can soar above the storm's life, but I'm incredibly glad for this last face. That he's got a place for us that are weak and struggling. Psalm says that he knows our frame, that we are but dust. But that just normal, everyday, weak, struggling, messed up people are welcome too. That you don't have to be powerful all the time. You don't have to be strong all the time. You don't have to be determined all the time. You can come weak, flawed, heartbroken, addicted, but here's the deal. You'll never learn to worship like the lion. You'll never learn to worship like the ox. You'll never learn to worship like a flying eagle until you first learn to worship as a man. That God receives our worship, and this is where the theology of worship comes in. I don't show up and based on my performance. this week, worship. I don't lift my hands and worship because I've earned the right to do it. That's bad theology when it comes to worship. I don't ask myself, have I met what I think is a standard of performance that's acceptable so now I can maybe worship a little bit. There are some people, they quit coming to church because they messed up that week. Like churches for those who performed well. Like that's how we think. I'm performing pretty good, I think now

the church is gonna be good. Like I don't wanna go to church because the walls will collapse in on me. Like what are you talking about? If that's what this is about, it collapses in on all of us. Right theology is I'm forgiven. I'm a child of the king. Not by my performance, but I've been washed in his perfect blood. I am imperfect, I'm just a man. But he still calls me to worship in spite of me. And I don't really have to look at whether I've earned the right or whether I've performed well enough or whether I've lived up to what I think is good enough to be accepted in worship. I just have to accept that Jesus went to the cross. He died, he paid the price. He was raised from the dead. And because of that, the Bible is clear, he made the way. He opened the door, he tore the veil. He gave me access into the presence of God. He and he alone did it. It was his performance and his performance alone. I am the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin so I could become the right. I don't stand in my own righteousness. You're like, I'm worshiping because I'm righteous. Then you're worshiping you. When I worship and say,

I don't have a chance to be righteous. Anything I have to offer in my righteousness is filthy rags is what the prophet said. Not coming in my, because I've earned it or because I deserve it. I'm coming because besides him, there is no equal. And I worship him because of who he is. He created the heavens, the earth. He gave me bread. He placed me on this earth. He gave me every gift and talent. He surrounded me with anything that's good and perfect. Every good gift came from the father of lights and whom there's no shadow of turning. And that is why I worship. Amen. So I want us to stand up on our feet. I'm gonna give us three minutes. You ready? Three minutes. I wish I could give us 10, but I wanna give three minutes and I wanna give an altar call to not for people to get saved. I wanna give an altar call for people to take this time all across. You don't even have to come forward for time's sake, but I wanna give an altar call for people that have been worshiping ignorantly. You know what ignorantly is?

I don't know. I don't really know. That's not my thing. Like that just doesn't seem very manly. Okay, so King David, the guy who cut the head off of Goliath, the second he sees the presence of God returned to Jerusalem, jumps up, he's dancing. His wife, Michael's looking down at him thinking the same thing. I don't really think that's very manly thing to do. Definitely not a kingly thing to do. He says, I'll be even more undignified than this. And he takes off his royal garments. He takes off his kingly rope because you don't come into God's presence saying I'm the man. You don't come into God's presence with your stature or your position. You come into God's presence because you know he is king of kings. He is Lord of lords. And I divest myself of anything of my life that would say anything other than I'm gonna give him my worship. Can I get about 10 people to put on the face of a lion? Come on and let your worship roar. Can I get about 10 more people

to put on the face of an ox? You're facing the hardest thing you ever have. But plow in Jesus. In Jesus' name, come on, rise above that storm. ♪ And dominion over all ♪ Let Him know He's worthy. ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪ ♪ The angels, Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Holy, our creation Christ ♪ ♪ Holy, You are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ May Your people stay, may Your people stay ♪ ♪ Holy to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Holy, You will always be ♪ ♪ Be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Christ Jesus, Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones, above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪

♪ Above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name, oh, it stands above them all ♪ ♪ The Lamb of God, who was and is and is and is ♪ So I commission you to turn on worship and don't turn it off. Monday, when you're driving down the road, turn it on. When you're on that run, turn it on. When you're on that walk, turn it on. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all seven days. I'm not asking you for 365 days. I'm asking you for seven days that you introduce worship to your life every day. And in your private time, you'll worship a little bit. You know, worship in the Greek means to kiss toward. I know that sounds weird, but every now and then you just need to let God know, man, I love you. I really do love you. I really do have a heart for you. I don't have it all figured out, but I do want you to know that. And just turn on some worship. And then come in next week on Sunday and let's not wait for the worship team to get us there. Let's not wait for my preaching to get us there because it probably won't. But you and I can come, God's the audience. And we wanna join with the angels of heaven surrounding his throne.

And we want him to be pleased. We wanna put a smile on his face as a church, amen.