In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of worshiping God before engaging in work for Him. He highlights the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil and how Jesus refused to worship the devil. The speaker explains that worship is not just about speech and song, but also about silence and reverence before God. He encourages the audience to be thankful and appreciative of others, as an expression of their worship to God.

I want to turn to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 4. We're going to have three Bible studies this evening, tomorrow, and the day after. And our subject for these three evenings is going to be our worship of God, our walk with God, and our work for God. Our worship, our walk, and our work. It has to be in that order. If we try to work for God without worshiping Him, without walking with Him, everything we do will be very shallow. There will be no joy in our life. I have met many, many full-time workers. I don't call them servants of the Lord because I don't know whether God called them to His service. I've met many missionaries in my lifetime. And at the end of many years of serving God, apparently, they are so bitter, the joy has disappeared. What is the reason for all this? It's because work for God has become primary in their life, and was primary in their life. God never meant it to be like that. I myself have served the Lord full-time for forty years. Forty-one now. But my work for God has never, God is my witness, it has never been primary. I'm not primarily here to preach, or write books, or travel, no. It's all secondary for me. It has been secondary for many, many years. I am, first of all, a worshiper. Because that's what God wants. And I want to say to you, from my own experience, if you want to come to the end of your life with joy and triumph and victory, learn to be a worshiper now. You young people, be a worshiper. Our service for God must be the overflow of our worship. It's like you pour water into a cup and it overflows. If your service for God is not an overflow of your worship, you're going to be terribly disappointed and frustrated when you come to the end of your life. But it's not too late to change. Matthew chapter 4, verse 10, is what I want to emphasize this evening. Our worship of God. Jesus said to the devil, when the devil told him to fall down and worship him, do you know that from the beginning, we saw that in our morning study, that the devil wanted to be like God, because he saw everybody worshiping God. He said, I want to be there. I want people to worship me. It's a terrible thing. I tell you, it's not just the devil. Wherever the spirit of Lucifer is there, you find people want to draw people to themselves. Be careful of a preacher who seeks to draw you to himself. That's the spirit of Lucifer. He wants you to be his worshiper. A lot of preachers like that are there today. Their whole presentation of their ministry is to get you to worship them. It's the spirit of Lucifer. Don't let anybody worship you. Elders of churches, don't be excited when people think you're a great person. You could be in danger of their worshiping you. That's the spirit of Lucifer. God will not endorse that. As he cast down Lucifer, he will cast you down. Sisters, don't seek to attract people to yourself. Draw people to Jesus. Matthew 4.10, Jesus replied, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Notice the order. You shall first worship and then you shall serve. And then you shall worship. And then you shall serve. And then you shall worship. And then you shall serve. And then you shall worship and then you shall serve. It's like the way we walk in a military parade, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right. It's not right, right, right, right, right, right. I mean, that's not the way to march. It's worship and serve, and worship and serve, and worship and serve. When Jesus spoke about himself being the door in John chapter 10, John's gospel chapter 10, Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enters, he will be saved, John chapter 10 and verse 9. We know that, but after we are saved, what are we supposed to do? It says in the same verse, and this is what you should be doing. He shall go in and out, and he shall go in and out, and he shall go in and out. He will go into worship and out to serve. He will go into the most holy place and worship God and come out and serve. He may serve the people in the tabernacle or go outside the tabernacle and serve unbelievers. That's another thing, but you've got to come in. The veil has been rent. You know, people in the Old Testament could not do this. The tabernacle was a picture of our human body. God made man in his image. He's a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God made man as a Trinity, and that Trinity is described in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, as spirit, soul, and body. Now, a lot of people who don't know the Bible think there are only two parts to man, visible body, invisible mind or personality. But the Bible says there are three parts to man. If there are only two parts to man, then we are like the animals. That dog has also got two parts. The dog has got a visible part and the dog has got a mind. A dog even has got emotions. Haven't you seen dogs angry? Haven't you seen dogs happy? What's that? It's emotions. Don't you think snakes have got intelligence? Don't you think cats have got cleverness? Animals have got two parts. We have got three parts. Because we've got a part of us which has got the capacity to receive the life of God. Animals don't have that. And that's called a spirit. And all the psychologists in the world don't know that. They try to help people by dealing with their mind and their emotions. But there's a deeper part to man called a spirit. And the tabernacle had three parts. One was visible, two were invisible. The visible part was the outer court like the body. The two invisible parts were the holy place and most holy place separated with a thick curtain. And that was a picture of soul and spirit. And you know in the Old Testament there was a very thick curtain between the holy place and the most holy place by which the Holy Spirit was saying, nobody can go in there. God dwells there. God did not dwell in the outer court. God did not dwell in the holy place. He dwelt in the most holy place. God does not dwell primarily in our body. He's not in my fingers or my ears. No. He dwells inside the body but not in this body. Body is only a house. If I cut off my hand, I don't cut off something of God. No. He does not even dwell in my soul. It's not in my mind that God dwells. You know some people talk about practicing the presence of God. That means they try to think, Jesus is here now. Well you can't keep thinking like that for 24 hours because you've got a lot of other work to do. And people say, oh then I've lost the presence of God. No. You will lose the presence of God if God is dwelling in your mind. But He doesn't dwell in your mind. You don't have to think that Jesus is here for Him to be here. Because God does not dwell in our minds. God does not dwell in our emotions. You know there are many churches where they think you clap and clap and clap and clap and get more and more excited and more and more excited and then God is there. What is that? They haven't understood where God dwells. He doesn't dwell in the emotions. There are people who sing songs and sing songs and get more and more excited and excited and excited excited and excited and excited and excited and louder and louder and louder. They say, Holy Spirit has come. It's a deception. God does not dwell in our emotions. He dwells in the most holy place, in our spirit. Deeper than our soul. Deeper than our mind and emotions. Now why is that important? Because Jesus said to the Samaritan woman this is just a little introduction to help you to understand what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 about worship. Remember our subject today is worshiping God. Our worship of God. Jesus, you know the Samaritan woman said to Jesus Tell me about worship. You know our fathers say that you got to worship in this mountain in Samaria and your people say that you got to go to Jerusalem. That's in John chapter 4 verse 20. And Jesus replied to the Samaritan woman You know Jesus' ways are so amazing. The most profound statement on worship in the entire Bible was given to a sinful woman who was divorced five times and was sleeping with a man who was not even her husband. Would you talk about the most profound teaching of worship to such a woman? Because God saw her heart. She had fallen. But God saw that she had a heart to turn to God. And I want to tell all of you sitting here There may be somebody sitting here who made such a mess of your life. You may think that there is no hope for you. God doesn't think the way man thinks. God doesn't think the way your elders and preachers think. He may have more hope for you than for a lot of other holy people. He may be able to reveal to you greater things than to some of those very great leaders. You remember in the previous chapter there was a bishop. A bishop called Nicodemus. You would have thought that that's the person to whom you have to tell about worship. But what did he tell Bishop Nicodemus? He told Nicodemus ABC, kindergarten stuff. You must be born again. Now you think that you got to tell the Samaritan woman that being born again and tell the bishop about worship. No, God says my ways are not your ways. The bishop needs to learn kindergarten stuff, how to be born again. But this woman who has been such a sinful woman, she can learn about worship. You know, you'd be surprised. Some of us think we are pretty holy and that God is going to give us great revelations. He is not. He is going to tell you kindergarten stuff because of your pride in how holy you think you are. But there are others. I am not saying you got to sin to get revelation. You got to be humble. That's the point. Nicodemus was pretty proud of being in the Sanhedrin. What did this woman have to be proud of? She was proud of nothing. She was so lonely that she came to the well when nobody else came there because everybody made fun of her. But Jesus waited at that well for her and taught her about worship. And what did he say? He said it's not here or there. It's not a question of... You know, some people think if I go to that church, ah, there's worship there. That's exactly what he was answering. Some people say go to that church, brother. There's great worship there. But our fathers say go to this church. Where shall we go? Jesus said it's not there, it's not here. Have you heard it? It's not in that church, it's not in this church. Because the Samaritans had their own church and the Jews had their own church and they wouldn't have anything to do with each other. It's like a lot of Christian denominations who have nothing to do with each other. And one person in one denomination says is this the place where I should worship God? Or in that church? And Jesus says not here, not there. Have you heard that? Because the hour is coming. John 4, 23 and 24. The hour is coming and it now has come. That means all these 1500 years in Jewish history, this hour had not yet come. This was a new hour in human history which had never taken place since the time of Adam. When the true worshippers that are false worshippers and true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit. That means in the most holy place. Not in the body, not in the soul, but in the spirit. And in truth. Because the Father is seeking for such worshippers. You know, the day I got gripped, I mean not read it. There is a lot of difference between reading a scripture and being gripped by the scripture. You know how when something lays hold of you and you can't escape. You can read that scripture and it may not grip you. But if it grips you, I remember when it gripped me. The Father is seeking all over the world for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. I said Lord, here I am. Make me one of those. If you are seeking for such people, here I am. I want to be one of those. How many of you will say that? The world is full of people who want to do something for God. I want to go here, I want to go there. I'd like to preach like Brother Zach. Don't make that your ambition. Seek to worship God like me. That's the important thing. You can all do that. God may not give you the gift to preach like me, but He'll certainly make you worship like me if you are interested. That's the great thing. Not to be a preacher or someone, that's a gift God gives to different people, but be a worshipper. And when you are a worshipper, you'll be a better servant. The Father seeks for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth because God is a spirit. And those who worship Him, the true worshippers will worship Him in spirit. Twice He said that. So what is the difference between worshipping in the spirit and worshipping in the soul and body? Jesus said the hour has now come, which means up until that time. And that means He was referring to the day of Pentecost and His Calvary where the veil would finally be rent and the way into the spirit, the way into the most holy place would be open. Now we can go right into the spirit, symbolized by the most holy place and worship the Father in spirit. Now worshipping in the body is like in the Old Testament Psalms. Everything you read in the Psalms is worshipping in the body. Clap your hands, lift your hands, use the keyboard, the drums, everything. This is great. I do it. I enjoy it. All I want to say is it's worship but it's worship in the body. Worship in the soul, that is the exciting excitement of your emotions. The tears that come down your face when you think of, oh I should have been crucified but He took my place and said let Him go instead. And I get stirred in my soul when some of these very lovely choruses stir us and it's worship in the soul. We haven't yet got to the spirit, remember that. This is worship in the body and in the soul and I want to tell you 99.999% of what Christians call worship is Old Covenant worship in body and soul. God and the Father is seeking for those who worship Him in spirit. It's good to use body and soul but let's move on. Like the Old Covenant said don't murder. That's good that you don't murder but move on to don't hate. Don't get angry. The Old Covenant said don't commit adultery. That would be great. Don't do it. But move on. Don't lust with your eyes either. And so the Old Covenant said worship in the body and the soul. Do that. But move on brother. Move on to worship in the spirit. If you are satisfied with your worship in the body and soul, you will never worship in the spirit and that's the reason why most Christians never in their entire life worship in the spirit and therefore their service for God also is not in the spirit. Their service for God is with their body and their soul. Some people only worship God with their body. Okay, then they will only serve with their body too. We can do a lot of service for our body. With our body we can help the poor, pick up the people from the gutters, take care of them, work in hospitals, change the wounds of the, I mean the clean the wounds of the lepers and oh what a lot we can do with our body for Jesus sake. A lot of people are doing it. God bless you brother. Go ahead and do it. I'm not against it. Then there are people who serve God in their soul. They use their mind and their emotions to stir people, to tell them about God. But it's quite a different thing to serve God in the spirit. There's a lot of unrest when you serve God in the soul. There's no there's perfect rest when we serve God in the spirit. Serving God in the spirit makes us holy. Serving God in the body and soul may not make you holy. Do you know that the way I test my service for God is is my service for God making me holier? Is it making me live better at home? Is it making me live in a humbler way with my co-workers? Then I know I'm serving God in my spirit. If not, I may be serving but it may be only body and soul because I'm worshiping in body and soul. And I'm satisfied with that. The true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth. And it's very important for us to understand that. And in this connection I also want to say that a lot of what people call worship today in many charismatic Pentecostal groups particularly and even the brethren people talk about worship. I've been in all these groups and that's how I know first hand. What the brethren call worship is pretty dead. I mean there's nothing there. They just keep on talking every Sunday about Christ having died on the cross and I praise the Lord for that. I remember that not every Sunday but every day of my life. Not just Sunday. I never get tired of thinking that Jesus died for me. And I never want that to be an old song. It's a new song forever. But you can think about that in your mind and talk about it and never worship God. It's not worship. And then I've been in some other assemblies where they kneel down for one hour, one and a half hours and like an endurance test they go through it and they talk about worship and worship and worship and they say so many things to God. It's not worship. And there are many other places where they sing a lot of songs and have a wonderful time. That's not worship in the spirit also. See there are three things the New Testament speaks about. Thanksgiving, praise and worship. And these are three completely different things. Thanksgiving, praise and worship. Do you know the difference between the three? Let us understand the truth accurately. Thanksgiving is thanking God for what He's done for me. The one out of the ten lepers who came said thank you Lord for healing me. When you come to the Lord and say thank you Lord for saving my soul. Thank you for forgiving my sins. You're not worshiping. That's thanksgiving. When you say thank you Lord for cleansing me, healing me, baptizing me in the Holy Spirit. Anything you say with thank you Lord for what He's done for you is not worship. It's thanksgiving. Is it good? It is excellent. It's very necessary because not even 10% of believers come back to the Lord to thank Him. It will change your life if you learn to thank the Lord for everything and thank people also for the good that they do to you. As much as you learn to thank God, I want to encourage you to thank people as well. Okay, that's step one. You move on from there to step two which is praise. When we praise God, we're not thanking Him for what He's done. I'm not thinking now what He's done for me. That's finished with step one. Now we are moving up to step two where I'm praising Him. Oh God how wonderful you are. That's not worship. That's praise. It's higher than thanksgiving. God how beautiful you are and how lovely you are and everything where we admire and adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. That's praise. You know when we praise Jesus for who He is not for what He did on the cross, that's thanksgiving, but for who He is. We praise Him. And if you look at the songs we sing, examine them carefully. I have examined, I pay attention very carefully to the songs we sing. I thank God for the melodies and the music but I pay attention to the words we sing because I don't want to tell lies to God. That's why I'm very careful about what I sing to God. And I've noticed that almost all the songs are thanksgiving and praise. Are they good? Excellent. We must learn to thank the Lord and we must praise the Lord because God dwells in the midst of the praises of His people. And praise drives away the devil. Is it a good thing to praise the Lord? Excellent. Whoso offereth praise glorifies me. And he who brings the sacrifice of thanksgiving makes a way for me to show Him my deliverance. We read in Psalm 50 verse 23. Isn't that wonderful? We can be delivered, the devil can be defeated. Thanksgiving and praise is wonderful but it's still centered in me. You say no. I praise God for who He is. Hang on. Haven't you heard people say at the end of a 45 minute of singing boy that was wonderful. We had a good time. Notice the emphasis. We had a good time. I went to the other church and they sang for 30 minutes. I didn't feel good at all. But I came to this church and we sang for 45 minutes and boy how I felt at the end of it all. That shows you are not worshipping. In worshipping you don't care how you feel. You care how God feels. Have you ever thought at the end of 45 minutes, well what did God think of that whole thing? We are so taken up with we having a good time. I clap my hands. What a wonderful time. It's just like a drunkard who goes to a bar and drinks for 45 minutes and said boy we had a good time. Now I got to go back to my boring home and my boring wife and all types of problems. I'm waiting for next Sunday when I come back to my friends and have another drinking time of wonderful 45 minutes of drinking. It's a praising bar. That's all. Like they have a drinking bar, we have a praising bar where we have a good time. They are not thinking about God in that drinking bar and a lot of people who praise God are not thinking of God at all. It's just the songs and the melody and the tapping the feet and swaying the body and lifting the hands and this and the song leaders are also taken up with did I do a good job here of getting everybody excited and happy and cracked a few jokes and all that and made everybody smile. God is not there at all. It's not worship. Don't be fooled by it. I'm not fooled by it. Worship is something far beyond that. I'm not saying it's bad. Praise is good. Thanksgiving is good. I'm saying the father is seeking for worshipers who will enter the holy place, the most holy place. I'll tell you something. In the outer court of the tabernacle there were crowds of people. There was the labor symbolizing the death of the cross. There was the altar and then the labor symbolizing baptism and then you go to the holy place there also the crowd of priests with the oil lit lamp symbolizing baptism in the holy spirit, the table of bread symbolizing the word of God, the altar of incense symbolizing prayer. Here are people who are gone little further than the outer court. They believe in the life of prayer, study of the word and the anointing of the holy spirit. Great! But they still haven't entered the most holy place. In the most holy place there is only God. And if you are bored with God alone you'll come out of there pretty quickly and say I like to be with people but if you want people you'll have to come to the holy place. And if you want more people you'll have to go to the outer court. Because when you got in the most holy place there's no people there, there's only God. Not even your wife. It's just you and God. Do you want that? I want it. To me it's the most exciting part of my life. I tell you honestly I find it very difficult to worship God in a crowd. Because you know however much we try you be honest and acknowledge it also. It's very difficult to pray without being conscious that other people are listening to what I'm saying. I mean aren't you, if you're honest don't you, when you pray in public you're conscious that fellow is listening, that fellow is listening I hope my prayer is good enough and etc. etc. When I'm singing also I'm conscious, my voice and how nicely I'm singing and I'm conscious of myself so much because there are so many people around me. And even after many years you're still conscious of yourself when you pray and when you sing. Worship I find for myself I can do best when I'm alone. All by myself. Just me and God. And if you don't love that heaven is going to be pretty boring for you. People ask me this question, Brother Jack what are we going to do in heaven? Just worship? Yeah worship, worship, worship. If you're going to be bored by that you've got an alternative place to go if you want to go there. But you don't have to worship. You want to yell and scream and shout and fight with people and get angry like you're doing on earth? There's another place for people like that. In heaven we're going to worship. Do you remember that song of my God how wonderful thou art is one of the finest songs of worship. Father of Jesus loves reward. What rapture will it be? Prostrate before thy throne to lie and gaze and gaze on thee. Is that boring for you? Just lie down before God's throne and gaze and gaze on Him for all eternity? It's not boring for me. I don't need people. My brothers and sisters, Jesus is saying to you, my son, my daughter, come up higher. Come up higher from the low level of Christian life that you have been living for so many years. Come into the most holy place. Come and meet with me. Be a worshipper. Make that the primary goal of your life. To be a worshipper. I've said this to God many times. Most of the time I worship when I'm lying in my bed flat either with my face down. The best place to be is with your face down in the dust before God and flat out completely like John was flat before the Lord. And God, you are everything to me. Like the psalmist said in Psalm 73 verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? Lord, when I get to heaven, I'm not excited that my sorrows will all be over. You know, there's so many songs we sing. Don't worry, brother, one day your sorrows will be over. Tempted and tried. We're all made to wonder how long it'll be like this. No, it'll all be over. Jesus will wipe away my tears. I'll tell you honestly, I'm not particularly waiting for Jesus to wipe away my tears. Or there'll be pearly gates. I'm not interested in the pearly gates. Streets of gold. Any type of street will do for me. Mansions. You can have my mansion, brother, sister. You can have it all. But you know what I'm looking for? God. God himself. Whom have I in heaven but thee. That's worship. And Psalm 73, 25, there's nothing on earth that I desire beside thee. If you can say that, honestly, you're a worshipper. Psalm 73, 25. There is nothing on earth that I desire beside thee. I'm not desiring a comfortable life. I'm not desiring a better job. Think of the number of people sitting here. I met a young brother from CFC who told me he's not even, how old would he be? 26, 27. Brother Jack, I'm only getting 40,000 rupees a month. It's not good enough for me. I need to get something more. Need to join another company. 40,000 rupees a month? The guy's not even married. And he's not happy with it. You think he'll ever be a worshipper? I hope he will, but he's certainly not one right now. Can he say, there's nothing on earth I desire beside thee? We don't have worshippers. Such people can sing well. Body and soul, they're excellent. But the father's not looking for such people. There's nothing on earth I desire beside thee. Lord, you decide how much I earn. It doesn't matter to me what I earn. I want you. If I have you, I've got the greatest wealth in the world. Now this young brother I told you is a CFC young brother. You know the holy church? Heard of CFC, the holy church where everybody's holy? From there only. You don't become holy by belonging to CFC, let me tell you that. You don't become spiritual by being part of CFC. Don't think that every brother, sister in CFC is holy and spiritual. No, not at all. I don't desire anything, Lord, but you. I don't desire better house, better car, you know, what all the prosperity preachers are preaching. You can have a better car. You can have more money. God can bless you with this, bless you with that. It doesn't even attract me. Because I'm a worshipper. I've already told the Lord I desire nothing on earth beside thee. These fellows don't even tempt me. Who do they tempt? Thousands of people who are not worshippers. Attracted, ah! Can I get a better car? Can I get a better house? If I give 10% to God, will God give me 100 times? Boy, that's the best bank in the world. No bank in the world that gives such interest. I'll join that. You think these fellows are worshippers? They are businessmen. There will be no businessmen in the house of the Lord. The Bible says in the last verse of Zechariah, there'll be no business man in the house of the Lord in the last day. That's how it's going to be. Dear brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you. Be a worshipper. Say to the Lord, there's nothing on earth I desire beside thee. You fellows who are so madly in love with your wife or your husband, you think that's the greatest spiritual life? It isn't. If you're not a worshipper, your marriage is not going to be very happy. If you think your wife is more important than God, you're not going to have a very happy marriage. I'll give it to you in writing. The cinema type of love doesn't go very far. That's all for show. If you want a really happy marriage, it's not by holding hands and whispering sweet nothings to each other. It's by worshipping God, where He becomes everything to you. And if you got a wife like that, for whom also God is everything, you'll have a good marriage is guaranteed. What a job it is. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy to bring up our children to the place where they desire only God. It's not easy to build a church where they desire only God. But that's our task. And I tried for 32 years and I have to say, Lord, I haven't succeeded much. Here and there, there's somebody. But generally speaking, it's been pretty much a failure to produce worshippers, to produce people who say, I desire nothing on earth but you, God. It's you and me in the most holy place. And to go further and to say, I don't even desire a ministry. Anybody here coveting a ministry? Some of you elders are seeking that God will give you an anointed ministry. You wanted anointed ministry? Sure. Be a worshipper first. Thou shalt worship and then thou shalt serve. Serve God with reverence and awe. It says in Hebrews and chapter 12. Lovely verse. How we should serve God. Many a time I have said to the Lord lying down on my bed. I said, Lord, if you want, you can take away my voice so that I'll never preach again. I have no lust to preach. I preach only to bless others. I don't have a personal lust to preach. I don't want to preach for five minutes or even one minute. If I can help people, I share my thoughts with them but I don't have any lust to preach or stand in any pulpit anywhere in the world. Not now and not even many years ago. And I don't have... I said, Lord, you can take away my voice, you can take away paralyze my hands so that I can never write another letter, never answer another email. I will not be depressed because I'm a worshipper. So what if I cannot write books and so what if I cannot preach sermons? I can lie down in my bed and worship God, my Father forever. Nothing can stop me from being a worshipper. If the anti-christian people lock me up in a jail, okay they can take away my bible, they can stop me from preaching, they can stop me from writing, but can they stop me from worshipping God? Impossible! Take me to any corner of the earth. They can stop all the external things, they cannot prevent me from being a worshipper. That's the person who's got a spirit of triumph in his life and says thanks be to God who has made us more than conquerors in every situation. Paul was a worshipper. He understood thou shalt worship and thou shalt serve. Hebrews chapter 12 it says here verse 28 We receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Do you want a kingdom which cannot be shaken? Do you want to build a church which cannot be shaken? Do you want to build a life that cannot be shaken? Do you want to build a home that cannot be shaken? Be a worshipper. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we offer to God an acceptable service. What is the service to God which is acceptable? It is the service that is offered to God with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. Those who worship God worship Him with reverence and awe. You know some of the songs that are sung in charismatic circles today when I listen to them, I don't find much reverence and awe in them. Songs like Hold me close, never let me go. You wonder whether it's some boy singing to a girl or a man singing to God. I cannot imagine Paul singing like that. Oh God, hold me close, never let me go. Paul would say, what are you singing? There's so much of sentimentality and emotion. Half-converted singers who wrote love songs in the olden days have come now into the church to write worship songs to the same spirit. They think loving Jesus is like loving a girl or loving a boy. I just shifted from there to Jesus and write a song to praise Him. It's not. It's with reverence and awe. And I'll tell you this, my dear brothers and sisters, there's hardly any writers or speakers nowadays that I read or hear who know anything about worship. That's a lost art in Christendom. And that's why Christendom is in such a shallow, pathetic condition. There were a few people 30, 40 years ago, maybe 50 years ago, like Tozer. A.W. Tozer. That was a man who knew to worship God. Others are rare. Rare. They're rare today. You can be one like that. You don't have to be a great preacher. I've heard A.W. Tozer on a tape. Let me disappoint you by saying he's not a great preacher. He's a great writer. His articles are very, very good. Every one of them. But you listen to him pretty heavy. But he was a worshipper. His calling was probably not preaching, but writing. He was very good when he wrote. But the main thing, he was a worshipper. He knew God. He knew what it was to give to God a service with reverence and awe. And that's what we need to learn. We need to know God better. Because our God is a consuming fire. So true worship is one which brings reverence and awe. When you sing a song and you don't just have a good time, but there's a reverence and awe. You say God is here. He's accepting these words I sing. That's a song of worship. There are very few like that. I sing a lot to myself and God. Songs that we don't normally sing here. Show me thy face Lord. One transient gleam of loveliness divine. And I shall never think or dream of other love save thine. All lesser light will darken quite. All lower glories wane. The beautiful of earth will never seem beautiful again. Do you know what it is to worship God? It's the most important thing because the Father is seeking. Can you imagine the Father looking over our congregation this evening and seeking, seeking. How many of people who have come here for this conference will want to be my worshippers. Who will worship me in spirit. Who will want to come to heaven because they want me. Not the mansions and the golden streets and all the comforts of heaven. And who prove that by living on earth in such a way that they don't desire a comfortable life. They don't desire grand food. They don't want to keep on buying expensive clothes. They don't want to waste money. They're not happy with what they have. They're happy with whatever they have. They want me. All the delight the Father has. If he can find one such person. This is worship. Reverence and awe. God is a holy God. You know this is also the reason why some of our prayers are not answered. Let me read you Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 7 It says about Jesus in the days of his flesh not the last day of his flesh in Gethsemane don't misread it. This is referring to 33 and a half years. In the days of his flesh 33 and a half years he offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears. That's why he used to go to the wilderness so that he wouldn't disturb his neighbors or disturb anybody. But we live in places like our crowded cities where we can't find wildernesses nearby. The only place where we can in some poor houses where they can be alone is the toilet. And if you start crying there people wonder what happened. So you can't even do it there. But I've discovered that you can have loud crying without opening your mouth. Without making a noise. It's not the noise that God is caring for. It's the heart. Crying out to God without any sound from the mouth. You know it speaks in Romans about groanings which cannot be uttered. Groanings which cannot be spoken. The Holy Spirit moves in us with groanings which cannot be spoken. Have you experienced that? This is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just speak in tongues or babble something. But groanings which cannot be uttered. Were you loud crying in tears? Jesus had it. He never spoke in tongues but he had these groanings which cannot be uttered. And it says because he prayed like that he was heard. And he was heard because of his godly fear. Because of his reverence and his awe. I want to be heard by my Father. And I know I'll be heard if I have a reverence for him. You know when I reverence God it affects my life in the world. It makes me treat people with respect. I'm so shocked when I see so many believers the wife does not respect the husband. Attitude is who are you to tell me something. You think such people are believers? I don't know what type of believers they are. Or vice versa if a husband talks to a wife like this, who are you? Such people are not believers. They are religious Christians. They don't respect God and so they don't respect people. That woman is made in the image of God. The Bible says that in James 2. That husband of yours is made in the image of God. And you're looking at the image of God and say huh, who are you? What does it show? You don't respect God at all. I respect my wife. I respect my children. I don't talk to my children and say huh, who are you? Because they are made in the image of God. You read that in James chapter 3. With our mouth we bless God and then with our same mouth we curse people who are made in the image of God. I wouldn't do it. Show me how you treat your wife. How you treat your husband. How you talk to your children. How you talk to your servant who is made in the image of God. How you talk to a beggar who is made in the image of God who happens to be in poor circumstances. How you talk to junior co-workers and I'll tell you whether you're a worshipper or not. In the Old Testament Leviticus 19 it said to young people Stand up when you see a grey haired man because that is how you prove that you fear me, says God. You see that happening today? Where do you see it? We don't see it in CFC. Young people today have no respect for older people. Not everybody, thank God there are a few left who still have respect which they learnt from their villages, from Indian culture. They did not learn it from the Christianity they saw around them. They learnt it from Indian culture. If Indian culture could teach them. Have you seen Indian people Hindus and all who bow down and touch the feet of their father and mother? Where is it gone today? It's because people don't worship God. Reverence for God is gone. Respect for godly men is gone. Imagine, God says, those who honour me, I will honour. You can look at a man whom God honours and you don't honour him? You don't honour a man whom God honours? How blind can you be? Almighty God honours somebody because he honours him and you don't know how to honour him. That is the blindness of today's Christendom. Religious people who knew the Bible in Jesus' time. Here was a son of God walking in their midst. Almighty God honoured him. They did not know how to honour him. They called him Beelzebub and ah, they took it for granted. When you come to the church, when you come to a conference and you hear a powerful word from God and you take it for granted as though you deserve it. It shows you don't respect God. You don't value him. You don't fall down and say, Oh God, I don't deserve to hear this. What am I, a wretched sinner that you should give me such wonderful truth? We absorb and absorb and absorb truth and we haven't learned to be grateful. We need to first take the step of thanksgiving and praise. Appreciate God. Appreciate the people who bless you and then you will worship God. You can't jump to step three if you don't go through step one and two. I've learned to thank God and not only thank God, I've learned to thank my wife even when she brings a cup of coffee to me in the morning because I don't believe I deserve it. I don't believe, ah because I have a husband, you've got to bring me my cup of coffee. I hope you're not like that. I hope you've learned to be thankful to people because you're thankful to God. I hope you've learned to appreciate people because you've learned to praise God. We need to be thankful to people, we need to appreciate people. Haven't you seen me appreciate people? I have publicly appreciated people. I've written letters of appreciation to people. Not because they are perfect. Jesus appreciated a Roman centurion who was not even born again. We are such misers, not only with money. We are misers with money, misers in thanksgiving, misers in appreciating people. Oh, oh, oh, he might get puffed up, but Jesus wasn't bothered like you are. It's not because he'll get puffed up, it's because you don't appreciate God. That's why you don't appreciate people. I've learned to appreciate God and I've learned to appreciate a lot of people who are not perfect. And the more I worship God, the more I learn to respect people. I want to say to you my brothers and sisters, let's make a difference in Christianity in our country and in the world. By becoming worshipers of God. Giving Him reverence and awe. And I tell you it'll change our life. It'll change our service. It'll make us victorious, triumphant Christians. Don't do it for that sake, because then you're still centered in yourself. Do it because God will get something out of your life. I'm not teaching you a technique saying, if you worship, ah, you'll be a happy person. And you're still centered in yourself. I want to be a happy person. I'll tell you what. I don't want to be anything. I want to be a worshiper. Is God going to get something out of my life? I want Him to get something out of my life. I want Him to get my worship. And I want to give it to Him. With all my heart, I want to give Him the worship that is due unto His name. In Psalm 96, verse 9, it says, Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Worship the Lord in holy attire. It says in the NASV, Psalm 96, verse 9. That means, if that reverence and holiness is not there in my life, I'm naked when I come to praise God or sing God. Would any of you come for a meeting naked? Without clothes? But that's how we come. When we don't have reverence and holiness. Holiness is the dress with which we worship God. When Isaiah, great prophet, after preaching for a number of years, one day he saw the... It says, I... I saw the king one day. And I saw the angels there saying, holy, holy, holy. They had six wings. And listen to this. It says in Isaiah 6, with the six wings. Isaiah 6, in verse 2, I think it is. Out of six wings, they worshipped with four wings and served with two wings. That's the proportion in heaven. They worshipped. They covered their face and feet and body. Oh God, holy, holy, holy. And with two wings they flew. And Isaiah said, oh God, I'm not like that. I'm a man of unclean lips. He didn't get that conviction because he heard a message. He saw God. You know, you can get convicted when you hear a message. It will be temporary. Next week it will be gone. Haven't you heard stirring messages in the past, which lasted for about one week? But Isaiah saw the Lord. He says, my eyes saw the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. I saw his glory. I saw my corruption. He said, Lord, I'm an unclean man. And the fire came from heaven and touched his lips. And the Lord said, now I can send you. Now serve me. That's what happens when we worship. Fire from heaven comes upon our life. And we can go out and serve him. And a little bit of service we do for him will accomplish a lot. I want to encourage you to be worshippers. Worship begins in speech, continues in song, and the highest level of worship is silence. Speech, song, silence. The Lord is in his holy temple that all the earth keeps silent before him. Let's learn to worship God. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Will you pray, Lord, make me a worshipper? Lord, with all of my heart, I want to be a worshipper. Forgive me my sins. Cleanse me in the blood of Jesus. You are my Father. I want to worship you all the days of my life. Whether those days be few or many. Father, I want to be a worshipper even if I never serve. I don't have abilities. That's fine. I can worship you all alone. I can be all alone in my room and be a worshipper. That's the greatest thing you can do on the face of this earth. And the Father is seeking for such people. Say, yes, Lord. I want to be that. Give me a vision of your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.