Simple Faith

Guest (Male): You ever get mad at God? Consider this from Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: If the Lord took your husband, your wife, your daughter, your son, your mom or dad, your friend, or anyone, and you get mad at God, then your treasure is in them. You are placing them above God. This cannot be and must not be. We need to be setting our hearts on Jesus.

We need to do what Jesus did, because remember what it said there in Philippians, and when he said in John, his food was to do the will of his father. His sustenance, that needs to be our food, to do the will of God.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. Today we continue our verse-by-verse study of the last book in the Bible, Revelation. We're going to be focusing again on chapter five. Do you ever stop to imagine what heaven's going to be like? It's hard for us to imagine what it's going to be like, but it's also hard to imagine anybody not wanting to go there.

The entrance requirements are easy: faith in Jesus Christ. So why is it that so many people reject that free gift of salvation and eternity in heaven? Let's join Pastor Bill Henry now in Revelation chapter five, verses 11 through 14.

Bill Henry: Jesus didn't go around to Peter, "Have you finished your education yet? No? Sorry, I can't use you. John, what about... no." None of them. The only one was Paul later on after Jesus was gone. Be careful, guys and girls. We need to be bringing our children up in the ways of the Lord, to be hearing from Jesus.

And be okay if they want to go be a missionary, or they want to serve in the ministry, or they want to do these other things. "You know what I feel called to do? I feel called to go sweep the street and just talk to people about Jesus." "Oh, but you're never going to have a big house. You're never going to have a great car." So what? Are you doing what Jesus has called you to do, son? I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud.

But how many of us would actually do that? How many of us have actually done that or are doing that now? Raising our children up to hear from Jesus through his Word and prayer, fasting, at church, serving. Because again, once they get to heaven... you're not going to ask this anymore in heaven, right? "So, what do you do for a living?" Right? You meet somebody, within the first two seconds, it's like, "Well, what do you do for a living?"

I hate to say that when I'm a pastor sometimes, because you can have a great conversation with somebody and all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, I'm a pastor." "Oh, I'm sorry I just said that word a few minutes ago in front of you." Just talk with me, bro. They don't want to talk to you anymore. Play golf with them, and all of a sudden they're just like blabbing a mile a minute. They find out I'm a pastor, and whoop.

Look, guys and girls, Jesus here is giving... we're given an insight. All the things that he's prayed for and none of the things that we treasure here on Earth. So what are you treasuring here today? What do you treasure? Let's say you have a great voice. Is your goal to go be, you know, the next Celine Dion? Or is it to be someone who just comes and simply sings worship to Jesus? So much more of an honor. So much more of an honor.

Turn with me, please, to Matthew chapter six. You see, guys and girls, we need to set our hearts in a different place, not upon this world. Jesus talks about this in Matthew six, verses 19 through 21. Matthew 6:19-21. I'm going to read this out of the Amplified. Matthew 6:19.

Jesus speaking: "Do not gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal. But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break into and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

A paraphrase says it like this: "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or, worse, stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is is the place you will most want to be and end up being."

You know, there's nothing wrong with having a savings account and an IRA. There's nothing wrong with going to college. There's nothing wrong with, you know, having a car or a house. But when those things become gods to us, when those things become treasures to us... and here's the question. You know how you can tell if something's become a treasure here on earth to you? If all of a sudden God were to take it away from you, would you be mad at God?

And this could be anything, guys and girls. Would you be mad at God if he took your job? Would you be mad at God if he took your house? If he took your IRA and all of a sudden your retirement's gone, would you be mad at God? Well, then your treasures are here on the earth. Will you be mad at God if you go to the doctor and you get the C-word? "You got cancer." "Lord, why me?" No, it should be, "Why not me, Lord? Everybody... so many others are suffering."

And again, this goes to our family. If the Lord took your husband, your wife, your daughter, your son, your mom or dad, your friend, or anyone, and you get mad at God, then your treasure is in them. You are placing them above God. This cannot be and must not be. We need to be setting our hearts on Jesus.

We need to do what Jesus did, because remember what it said there in Philippians, that his heart, his... and when he said in John, his food was to do the will of his father. His sustenance, that needs to be our food, to do the will of God, to love Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Is that your food today? John 14:21, "He who has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved of my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Peter, do you love me? Put your name there. Do you love me? John 14:23, Jesus answered him and said to him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine but the father's who sent me."

So as we're loving God, as we're loving him through his Word, as we're responding in loving obedience to our salvation in God, and we're keeping his word as best that we can—and we'll fail every day, by the way—but that's our sustenance. Oh Lord, this is so awesome. I get to keep your word. I don't got to. "Oh, what do you mean I can't do this anymore?" No. "Oh, thank you, Lord, I don't have to do that anymore."

For me it was: I don't have to do drugs anymore. I don't have to chase after sex anymore. I don't have to get drunk anymore. Oh, praise you, Lord. It wasn't "I don't get to do those things." It was "I don't have to do those anymore." But I get to pray. I get to praise you. I get to study your Word. I get to serve others. I get to share the gospel.

What a great honor. Do you know the angels look at us in awe? "Lord, how can you use them?" Do you ever look in the mirror and say that yourself? I do. "How do you use me?" "Well, Bill, I used a donkey for Balaam, so I can use you." Okay, Lord, I'm good with that. "You like being called a donkey?" Call me anything you want. Just don't call me unsaved, because I'm in Jesus.

You know, there's one other lesson of application here, if I may. You see, there's a lot of true blessings for those who follow to simply seek to love the Lord, to love Jesus, to love God the Father and his Spirit by walking in loving obedience to him. Isn't it interesting how Jesus goes on to say there in John 15:11, he says, "These things I have spoken to you," talking about his Word, "that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full."

Do you have joy in your life today? "Oh, I'm not very happy." Do you have joy? Happiness comes and goes. Happiness comes and goes. You know, I heard a guy the other day... how many people here would be happy if I gave you a million dollars today? Anybody raise your hand if you'd be happy if you got a million bucks. Wow, some of you don't want it? Okay. Those of you who raised your hand, see me after; we got a million dollars for each. Those who didn't, sorry. No.

So would that make you happy for a few days, anybody? Raise your hand, anybody, right? Okay. What if I gave you ten million dollars today, but you wouldn't wake up tomorrow? How many here would take the ten million dollars today? Why not? Your life... there's one hand in the way back. "I'll take it."

Why not? Because your life is worth more to you than ten million dollars. Interesting, isn't it? So funny, but if you get ten million, you'd still wake up happier than anything, right, if you got that? But wait a minute. You just told me your life is worth more than ten million dollars, so why don't we wake up every day happier than if we had ten million dollars just given to us?

Especially those who are now in Jesus, those who have repented of our sins, believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, believe that he's risen from the dead to give us life. And we've been born again of the Spirit of God as we believe in him to be the Lord and Savior of our lives. How much more so? There's that deep and abiding joy now. You can take everything I own, give up my life, my house, my home. What was that old song? "Just to have you back again." No, I don't want to have you back again. I want Jesus. It's all his.

All to Jesus I owe, because he owns me. He bought me with his blood and gladly so. But even then he says, "You know what? As you follow me and you give me worship, it's not just waiting until heaven and all these treasures. Even now I'm going to give you a joy, that my joy may remain in you and your joy may be full, abounding, abundant."

And again, it's this joy that as circumstances come into our lives, it doesn't mean we're not going to cry if we get that big C-word or that we lose our job or someone close to us dies. We're going to cry. We're going to mourn, but not as the world mourns, as those who have no hope. You see the difference? It's a beautiful thing being in Jesus Christ.

You know, as we're looking at this picture back here in Revelation, can I ask you a question? Does your heart long to sing with these multitudes? Do you read this and go, "Man, I just want to be there"? Do you long to bow down in grateful and loving worship of God alone who is worthy? Jesus, who is worthy of our worship? I can't wait to be there. I can't wait. Even now I just love to worship Jesus.

I don't care if we're going to sing an old hymn and there's a piano there, somebody singing out of tune over here. Oh, to Jesus. God bless that heart. Man, they're just loving Jesus. A little distracting, but they're loving Jesus. It's okay. You see, Jesus alone is worthy of our thanks, our praise, our love, our affection, our gratitude. You see, so many times we pour these things into other things and other people. They're not worthy of them.

"Oh, it's so good to see you," you know, and you name the star that you love, right? The current movie star or the political person or music singer. "Oh, I just... if I could meet them right now." And they're... your sports star, "Oh man, if I could just meet this dude, that'd be so cool." And some people do this even in the church.

They lift people up. They lift pastors up. They lift worship leaders up, or singers, Christian musicians. Or you know what? We're not worthy of your praise. I'm not worthy of your praise. I'm worthy of what God tells you to do in the Bible with the pastor. You follow him as he followed Jesus. You give him the honor that is due one who is working hard, same with Pastor Jay and other leaders within the church. But you don't look up to them as God.

You don't worship them. You don't venerate them. "Well, you're on the radio, Pastor Bill." I know. Pretty cool, isn't it? No, so what? Is God blessing you through his Word that you hear on the radio? Yeah, praise God. Remember, I'm just a donkey.

So is your favorite pastor. So is your favorite worship leader. And the others are actually distracting people. They're not worthy of your worship. And by the way, that's why so many of them disintegrate, they self-implode, because they know they're not worthy at some level. They're not ready to receive that from people. Only God is. Only Jesus Christ is worthy of our praise, our affection, our gratitude. He alone died for you.

He alone has loved you and does love you more than anyone has ever loved you. Do you understand? Let's say you've been let down. You've been hurt. You've been wounded by people who were supposed to love you. Jesus will never wound you. He who was wounded comes with his wounded hands to love you.

Jesus Christ died for you. He bled for you. He was mocked for you. He did this first and foremost in loving obedience to his Father, but since he and his Father are one, guess what? He's also the same God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus loves you.

Back here in our text, verse 13. "Every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all of them that are in them, I heard saying: 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.'" So again, the camera keeps going back. Now it's not just the myriad in heaven, now it's in heaven and on the earth, under the sea, such as are in the sea, and all of them singing praises to Jesus Christ.

And I love this in verse 14: "And the living creatures said, 'Amen!'" Amen, so be it. So let it be. "And the twenty-four elders fell down..." So they'd apparently gotten back up. Now they're falling down again and praising Him some more. Isn't that awesome? "All right, let's get back down." Don't worry, no more bad backs, no more bad knees, anything. Whoo, time to worship again! Let's go!

Notice as we're closing, I just want to look at one last thing. Notice the 24 elders fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever. Worship. In the midst of the praises, they fell down and worshipped. The Greek word "worship" here is a form of the Greek word "proskuneo," and it basically is a contraction of two Greek words: "pros" meaning "towards" and "kuneo" meaning "to kiss, to adore." You put them together, they literally mean "to kiss towards someone."

Now, Spiros Zodhiates is a Greek scholar and he said this about this word; it's beautiful. "The ancient Orient, especially in Persia, the mode of salutation between persons of equal rank was a kiss of each other on the lips. When there was a difference of rank and it was slight, they kissed each other on the cheek. When one was much inferior, he fell on his knees, touched his head to the ground, and prostrated himself, throwing kisses at the same time towards his superior. Now in this latter mode of salutation, the Greek writers expressed by proskuneo, and in the New Testament generally it means to do reverence to, to homage someone, usually by kneeling or prostrating oneself before him. In the Septuagint it means to bow down, to prostrate oneself in reverence, in homage, to kiss."

And that's what it is as we're humbling ourselves and we're just getting down before God, just throwing kisses to Him. And that's what these elders and the beasts are doing. They're bowing down, they fell down, they're worshipping Jesus. Now for me, what a great picture for us to learn to be better worshippers of God.

You know, it's sad today how we let our pride come in with worship. "Well, I was raised in a church and we would just sit there with our hands folded and if they told us to stand we'd stand, told us to sit we'd sit, told us to kneel we'd kneel, and if they told us to sit back we'd sit. And that's worship." Now, we can worship in the midst of that.

But it's interesting because all of a sudden, you know, when they come to a freer environment, they think it's like, "I can't raise my hands to the Lord in worship" as we read in the Word of God. "Well, why not? Well, I'm going to get crazy today. I'm going to do this today. Whoo! Praise you, Lord! Whoo! I got really..." Or others say, "Man, I'll never get down on my knees or my face before the Lord. I'll just stand or sit as I see fit."

So in other words, so many within the church today worship God within their comfort zone. "What do I feel comfortable with? Well, these chairs are pretty nice, why should I get up from these? Why should I get on my face with this?" But then you have the other side of the crowd. Still others that go on to odd and unbiblical worship as they laugh during worship and call it the gift of joy, or they get slain in the spirit or they start to bark or howl or run around the sanctuary.

I've seen all these things, by the way. I came out of a charismatic, hyper-charismatic church. I actually heard that a man was telling the true story of when he was a young boy, he went to a charismatic church, and one lady started running around the inside of the sanctuary during worship. And he asked his mom, "Hey mom, what's she doing?" And the mom said, "She's doing the Jericho march, son." And the young boy, though he was young, he knew his Bible and he said to his mom, "We better stop her before she gets to the seventh time around."

There are many who seek to worship God the way they want to today. Much like in the book of Judges and Judges 21:25, it says, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." You see, as Christians, we're not to act as if we have no king, as if I'm the captain of my own ship. No, we have a king and he has told us how to worship him.

You see, in John chapter four, you don't have to turn there because of time's sake, John 4:21, Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Now this is echoed by the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter three. It says, "For we Christians are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exalt and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence on what we are in the flesh, on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances."

Oh, to be those who are worshippers of God, not just as we're singing worship here today, but as we go throughout our lives, as we wake up in the morning, as we're going throughout our day, just to be... let everything be an act of worship to the Lord. "Lord, this guy just cut me off in front of me, man. He's a jerk, Lord, I'm just going to say that, you know. But I'm going to pray that you bless him. And I'm going to lift up worship. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to practice patience right now, Lord."

I just want to close with a few closing words by some beautiful old saints on what they said about worship. Herbert Carlson said, "To worship God is to realize the purpose for which God created us." Stephen Charnock said, "Without the heart it is no worship; it is stage play; it is an acting a part without being that person really; it is the hypocrite."

John MacArthur said, "Worship begins in holy ecstasy; it ends in holy obedience, or it isn't worship." Lastly, two by A.W. Tozer: "True worship is to be so personally and hopelessly in love with God that the idea of loving another as God or equal to God never even remotely exists." And lastly, he said, "True worship seeks union with its beloved and an active effort to close the gap between the heart and the God it adores is worship at its best."

Guest (Male): I hope you were blessed by today's message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. And today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's new series in the book of Revelation.

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