Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Your ability to interact with the Divine is what sets you and all humans apart from the rest of God's creation. In today's teaching, Stuart Briscoe discusses how you can interact with God in worship as God intended.

Stuart will begin in just a moment, but first, did you know the Book of Revelation is meant to encourage you in turbulent times? It's a fascinating but mysterious book. It's apocalyptic, prophetic, and pastoral all at once.

And we want to help you dive into its encouraging message by sending you Stuart Briscoe's series, *End Times: What's Going On?* It's our thanks for your financial support to keep this broadcast going strong. Today is the final day to request this resource, so call today to request your copy and uncover God's plan for the end times. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Here's Stuart with the beginning of his message, "The Essence of Worship."

Stuart Briscoe: Jesus Christ himself said, "I have come to seek and to save those who are lost." I think it is not too difficult to establish that one of the dimensions of the God of Christianity is that he is a seeking God. If that is true, then the question that automatically comes to my mind is: what is he looking for? What is God looking for?

If that is true and I've got some answers there, then the corollary question to me would be: did he find whatever he's looking for in me? Those are two questions I'd like to explore with you: what is it he's looking for, and if we can establish what it is he's looking for, then we can ask the personal question, "Did he find what he's looking for in me?"

I want to direct your attention to John's Gospel chapter four, in which we have an account that most of you, I'm sure, are familiar with, of Jesus meeting with a certain woman by the side of a well in a town called Sychar in Samaria. During the course of the conversation that Jesus had with this woman, the subject turned to religion and then specifically to styles of worship.

This woman, being a Samaritan, talked about Samaritan worship and compared it to Jewish worship because as she looked at Jesus, it was obvious that humanly speaking, he was a Jew. As usually happens in those kinds of discussions, she tried to compare the two.

Jesus' response is very interesting. Verse 23 of John 4 says this: Jesus said, "A time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Therein is certainly part of the answer to the question, "What is God looking for?"

God is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. That is what the seeking God is seeking. I think this idea that there is enormous benefit in worship is a totally foreign concept to many people. As far as they're concerned, worship is a fundamental irrelevance at best, at worst an excruciating bore, and they stay away from any kind of worship in droves.

It looks to me as if we need to look very carefully into this idea that there is possibly some benefit that accrues to human beings in the act of worship. Let me tell you what it is and then I'll try to substantiate it for you.

I believe that human beings are uniquely created, and that the major aspect of their uniqueness is that they are created capable of worship. If the uniqueness of a human being is seen in their capacity for worship, then clearly to fail to worship means that human beings are operating at less than optimum.

If a human being is operating at less than optimum, it will be of enormous benefit for them to factor in that which is lacking. That would basically be my understanding of this. Now, let me see if I can substantiate this for you. In what way are human beings created uniquely capable of worship?

The Bible starts out without apology, without introduction, without preamble, just goes straight in and dives off the deep end. What does it say right at the beginning? "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." No preamble, no argument, no introduction, no discussion. That's it. That is where we start in what we call the divine revelation.

That lets us into a clue. The clue is that God is in the business of revealing himself. There was no compelling reason that God should have made anything. He was complete and entire in himself from all eternity, but in order to express who he is, with an enormous desire to express who he is, he created.

The Bible says this: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth his handiwork." Included in this created order, of course, are human beings. The statement of scripture is this: that as we look at the created order, it is possible for us to see something of the reality of the Creator because the Creator is in the business of self-revelation.

That's where we start. The Creator created because he's in the business of self-revelation, and in the created order, it is possible to see something of the Creator. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Human beings, being part of that created order, hold a unique place in the created order.

We are certainly part of it. When we talk about that which is created, we usually talk about animal, vegetable, and mineral. That accounts for what we have around this created order—animal, vegetable, and mineral. And of course, there are human beings.

Why don't you say there are four things: animal, vegetable, mineral, and human beings? Because in actual fact, human beings are made up of animal, vegetable, and mineral. I don't want to insult anybody; let me talk about me. I am basically animal, vegetable, and mineral. My body is made up of common minerals that you'll find lying around the place. If you get them in the right order and scrape enough together, you could make one of me. Nobody would want to, but you could do it.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Telling the Truth, the teaching ministry of Stuart and Jill Briscoe. Stuart will be right back to share more of his message, "The Essence of Worship," about how God reveals himself to humanity and how we can relate to him as he intends.

If you ever wonder what the end times hold for humanity, there's no better place to look than the Book of Revelation. While many shy away from this mysterious book of the Bible, it contains so much encouragement for you today.

We want to help you uncover the mystery of the end times with Stuart's eight-message series, *End Times: What's Going On?* In this long-awaited series, Stuart dives into the Apostle John's writings in Revelation to help you make sense of this mysterious book of the Bible.

You'll uncover the key promises it contains for the end times and how its prophetic words can strengthen your faith today. *End Times* is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life in Christ through the ministry of Telling the Truth.

This resource is only available through the end of the day today, and we don't want you to miss out. So call now to request your copy of the series when you give to help more people experience life. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Just a reminder to visit our website at tellingthetruth.org. There, you can also sign up for the Briscoes' daily e-devotionals, and you can find the link to our Facebook page, where you can let us hear your feedback about the broadcast. See you online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart Briscoe once again.

Stuart Briscoe: What's so special about being a human being then, if we're just part of the created order? What's special about us? The answer is this: because we are animal, vegetable, and mineral, we are physical, which means we can relate to the physical environment. But we are social because we have the remarkable ability to relate to each other.

We can know each other. We can like each other. We can love each other. We can dislike each other. We can hate each other. We can learn from each other. We can insult each other. We can react to each other. We are far more than the pigs. We are far more than the dust. And we are certainly infinitely more than Brussels sprouts.

We are not only physical, we are social. But is that all we are? Because dogs are social. Whenever you see a little dog, check its north end. Check its north end to see if it is growling. Check its south end to see if it's wagging. You'll very soon find that it is a social thing. Cats are another issue, but dogs are social.

I am more than social and I am more than physical because I am spiritual, which means this: because I am physical, I can relate to the physical universe; because I am social, I can relate to the sensate universe; and because I am spiritual, listen, I can relate to the transcendent.

I can relate to the eternal. I can relate to the divine. Relating to the transcendent and relating to the eternal and relating to the divine is worship. The thing that sets me apart from the rest of the created order that God did intentionally bring into being is that I can relate to the spiritual, the transcendent, the eternal, the divine.

It stands to reason that if I'm not doing it, I am not operating up to optimum. God's self-revelation is where we start. He does it in creation. The problem very often is that he reveals these beautiful things to us in creation and we don't have eyes to see them.

God is transmitting the truth about himself. This room is full of transmissions of cell phones. There are not only cell phone signals; there are radio signals, there are television signals. God is transmitting in creation the truth about himself. But if you're not switched on, you're not operating at optimum.

Not only does God reveal himself in creation, he reveals himself in covenant. The Old Testament takes us a step further in God's self-revelation. Creation will tell us that he is powerful, that he is immense, that he is orderly, that he is majestic—all kinds of things it will tell us. But it won't tell us that he is personal, it won't tell us his character, and it won't tell us his relational nature.

God then took a further step in self-revelation and moved to make a particular covenant arrangement with a particular group of people through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed. Psalm 19, which we've already quoted, "The heavens declare the glory of God," starts out with God's self-revelation in creation.

The next part of it talks about the covenant that he had made. It talks about his instructions, it talks about his commandments, it talks about his orders, it talks about his statutes. In other words, this was God speaking to the children of Israel and saying, "This is what I am like, this is what I am for, this is what I am against, this is what I require of you, this is what I promise you, this is what I warn you about."

We begin to see the explosion of revelation, transmission of signals coming from a self-revelatory God. Now, he's not just revealing himself in creation, he's revealing himself in covenant. But there are still holes in our understanding of God that he wants to fill, and so there's a third means of self-revelation: for he reveals himself in Christ.

He reveals himself in Christ. He turns to the Son one day and he says, "Son, I want you to go down into that world and first of all, I want you to show them who I really am." The Son came down and one day said to his questioning disciples, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."

Those words were echoed by the writer to the letter to the Hebrews when he said that Jesus was the express image of the invisible God. People sometimes say, "I don't know what God's like." I say, let me introduce you to Jesus. You say, "How are you going to do that?" I know an excellent book on the subject: the New Testament.

Read the Gospels. Immerse yourself in the Gospels and get a vision of Jesus, and if you see him, you've seen the Father. That is why a person who is alert to the fact that God is in the self-revelation business is an assiduous student of nature, who loves the Old Testament, who is an avid student of the New Testament, because he or she wants to receive the transmission that is going on all the time from a self-revelatory God.

The interesting thing about transmissions is that you need something that is capable of receiving the transmission. There's an invisible signal going on. It's going out—self-revelatory God in creation and in covenant and in Christ. But if you're not switched on, you'll miss the message.

If you are switched on, you can receive what he is transmitting. You have a spirit that is capable of receiving the transmission. It's just possible you won't know what you're receiving. It's just possible you don't know what you're reading. It's just possible you don't know what you're seeing.

That is why God has promised that his Spirit will commune with your spirit and lead you into an understanding. Listen to what it says: "Meditate upon these things, and the Lord will give you understanding." You see, we live in an instant world. We want it all cut and dried for us. We want it quick, and we want it easy, and we want it painless.

God says, "Oh no, no, no, no. You will receive my transmission and you'll begin to appropriate it when you begin to take the time out to listen intently, to pray deeply, to meditate constantly." Then I will give you human teachers who, along with the Holy Spirit, can take the eternal Word and you get the living Word and the Holy Spirit and a gifted, called human teacher, and you take in what is being revealed, and you meditate upon it, and I promise you something: you will appropriate what you're receiving that I'm transmitting.

Then he goes a step further. This is what Psalm 95 says. Psalm 95 says, "Come, let us sing for joy unto the Lord. Let us shout unto the rock of our salvation. Come, let us bow down and worship. Come before him with thanksgiving." Now we're going a step further: transmission, reception, appropriation, appreciation.

Appreciation. My heart now is being strangely warmed by what I'm learning of God from creation and covenant and Christ. I am beginning to discover a desire to know more. I am beginning to discover a hunger for truth. I am beginning to get my sights lifted into the realm of the transcendent and the eternal.

I am no longer purely physical and social, I'm becoming spiritual. I am looking for ways to express what is bubbling up inside me—appreciation of the appropriation of the reception of the transmission. Do you know what all this is called? Worship.

Worship. The exhortation of Psalm 95 is very straightforward. It is to the people to gather together. To gather together and to sing for joy to the Lord. What are they doing? They are articulating the appreciation of the reception of the transmission and they're doing it together. There is a place for corporate worship. There is a place where people come together, and in coming together, they sing for joy to the Lord.

Guest (Male): God made you to relate to and worship him as he reveals himself to you. In just a moment, Stuart will be back to answer a few questions about what that means. But first, Revelation is a mysterious book of the Bible, but there is a beautiful message of hope for followers of Christ contained in this final book of scripture.

As Christians, we should all examine what God intends for us to learn within its pages. With this in mind, Stuart Briscoe created his eight-message series called *End Times: What's Going On?*, which we want to send you as our thanks for your gift of support today.

Generous friends like you keep the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth going. So if you've never given before, please consider a gift today to help keep God's Word going out around the world. But the special offer of the *End Times* series ends today, so be sure to request yours when you give. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or visit us online at tellingthetruth.org.