Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, October 23

Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, October 23

Sermon Text: I Timothy 6

Songs for Worship: 10,000 Reasons, Crown Him With Many Crowns, All I Have is Christ, He Will Hold Me Fast, Great is Thy Faithfulness

This Sunday I plan to finish our brief study of I Timothy by looking at chapter six.  This chapter is straight-forward about practical issues we face every day; the way we do our jobs, the way we view and handle our money, the way we fight the good fight of faith and pursue godliness.  But all of this depends on our view of God.  If we understand the nature of the God, if we understand who He is and genuinely trust Him, then our faith is strong; we will recognize falsehood and false teachers.  We will feel encouraged in our faith and be courageous in our walk.  All of this depends on our view of God.

Chapter one included a beautiful doxology of praise: To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (I Tim 1:17). 

The epistle ends with the same theme of praise in this beautiful doxology:  …..He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.  To Him be honor and eternal dominion.  Amen.  (I Tim 6:15-16)  

The word doxology comes from two Greek words: doxa - which means glory and logos - which means to say, a word or a saying.  It is a saying about God's glory.  It is praise or a verbal offering of thanks to God.  It is saying thanks by means of praising God.

This week’s worship preparation is simple.  Take time to read and re-read and meditate on this doxology of praise.  Each phrase expresses the transcendent incomparable greatness of God  …..He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.  To Him be honor and eternal dominion.  Amen.

We gather to worship Him who is blessed.  The word means happy, content, fulfilled.  This is saying God is content, he is happy, completely satisfied, fulfilled. There is no anxiety over anyone or anything.  God is unfrustrated and perfectly content.

We gather to worship Him who is sovereign:  God is not wringing his hands; he is perfectly free from worry.  Why would he worry when he controls everything?  Nothing happens outside his sovereign control.  Everything is exactly as he wills it to be.  He is sovereign.

We gather to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords:  The Greek text says, “the King of those kinging and the Lord of those lording”.  There's no competition, He is absolutely sovereign and it is impossible for anyone to wrestle that control from him. 

We gather to worship the one who alone has immortality.  Theologians refer to this as the eternality of God.  God is inherently immortal, it is a part of his nature.  No one gives eternality to God; eternal is who he is.  This means God is incapable of death.  “He has a quality of life that is utterly unending.” (J MacArthur)

We gather to worship the one who dwells in inapproachable light.  This speaks of the holiness of God -  God is beyond us. He's unapproachable.  In Exodus 33-34 we see the shining forth of the holiness and glory of God.  God’s response to Moses’ request to see his glory speaks to God’s holiness: "man shall not see me and live"  (Ex 33:20)

The way we live our lives is a direct reflection of our conception of God.  Seeing and grasping this vision of God’s grandeur and majesty compels us behave as we should in the household of God, to live as we should as God’s family, and lift up and live out the truth of the gospel. 

The way we prepare for, gather for, and experience worship is a direct reflection of our conception of God.