I Declare Holy

All right. If you don’t know our youth, the best thing about them is that they absolutely love to talk to people that they don’t know here at church. It’s their favorite thing. So every single person here, go introduce yourself — they’ll love to talk to you. And then I’ll deal with it later tonight when we have youth group and they’re all mad at me.

But yes, I’m excited to speak with you guys. I have been sick almost all week, so just like Jay, I am also almost out of vocals. And then I let the Spirit kind of take over in worship and I couldn’t stop singing, so now my vocals are even more shot. So bear with me this morning. I’m also a little congested, but I’m not going to let that get in the way, because this message is really good.

I told Jay I’m a little nervous, because I wrote it all down and then I spent some time organizing it. I don’t know how many of you guys are into interior decorating or interior design, but anytime a new season hits, whether it’s spring or fall or winter, my wife will somehow magically turn our apartment into that season — themed, perfectly decorated. However, there’s the occasions where I need to help move something heavy, and there’s a lot of times where I’ll just have to move it a little bit to the right and hold it. And then she kind of backs up and looks at it for way too long while I’m holding this heavy thing, and then she’s like, “No, a little bit more to the left. A little more to the right. Okay, perfect.” And then it’s usually in the same spot it was when we started. But that’s okay.

The reason I bring that up is that’s how I feel with my message. I’m moving things around, I’m organizing it, I’m like, “No, that’s not quite right,” until finally last night at, I want to say, 11:30 or 11:45, almost midnight, I was like, “Forget it. I’m just going to have the Spirit take over, and the organization’s going to go from there.” And I was talking to Jay this morning, and I feel really good about it. It’s a good message.

I actually really love the title. The title today is called “I Declare Holy.” Everybody say, “I declare holy.” The emphasis on this title can be found in all three words. I obviously don’t know English — I know we have some teachers in the room — but it’s one of those things where you can have the same sentence, but depending on what word you put emphasis on, it can have a different meaning. That’s kind of how I feel with this, because you can have “I declare holy,” or “I declare holy,” or “I declare holy.” And I was trying to figure it out, but everything that we’re talking about, really the emphasis is on all three of these words. So yes, the title today is called “I Declare Holy.”

Before we get into it, because it is kind of heavy, I just want to check in with everybody. How did we do — I think it was just two days ago — did everybody survive the winter storm? Everybody got out okay? Everybody dealt with the snow? Everybody’s here, everybody’s in good spirits? I asked because — and it has to do with the message a little bit — it’s very easy to go through our day-to-day life throughout the week and then just kind of roll into church and rest and relax and hear the Word and feel good, and then go home. That’s not what this message is today. But I do want to acknowledge the fact that we deal with real life, and winter in Wisconsin is definitely real life.

In fact, I remember — he’s not here right this second, he’s out talking with people — but I remember coming back from a guys’ retreat when I was probably a youth age, I think I was 16, 17, something like that. I was coming back with Jay. We were coming back from Rhinelander, and he was driving an entire van full of boys. It was completely packed — there was like eight of us, I want to say. Everything went well at the event, we were on our way home, and then a winter storm hit, and we kind of veered off into a ditch. And we were stuck there. We were not getting out. We were trying and trying, and Jay’s like, “Well, I guess it’s time to pray.”

So we started praying that the Lord would help us out. And I’m not exaggerating, maybe five or ten minutes later, some huge truck pulled up, and he had this big chain on the back, and he was like, “You guys need help? I’m just going around towing people out.” We’re like, “Really?” He’s like, “Yep, I’ve been out here for an hour, because I know people are stuck.” So Jay was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” Jay told all of the boys to get out of the van, which was smart because of what was to come.

So we all got out of the van, and the guy hooked up the chain. If you were standing far away like a lot of us were and you’re watching this van from the back — as soon as this guy hits the gas and kind of yanks the van with his chain, I’m talking that thing looked like a ragdoll. That van was just onto the road. It looked effortless. And as soon as he hit the gas and it kind of jerked, we heard the horn on the van. We heard this “burnt” as soon as he hit it. So we were like, “Oh, that’s funny. Jay got scared and must have immediately hit the horn as soon as he was jerked out.”

But what many people didn’t see is what I saw, because I was standing in the front and I could see Jay in the driver’s seat. The guy told him, “You’re going to have to guide it with the steering wheel, but I don’t want you to hit the gas or brake or anything. Just guide it.” So the reason the horn went off is because as soon as this guy hit the gas and it jerked the van, Jay’s head went right into the steering wheel. It was really, really loud, and I thought it was hilarious. I don’t know if you guys know this about Pastor Jay, but it doesn’t matter what amount of pain he’s in, he always finds it funny, even though he’s the one in pain. And he just started cracking up.

So that’s one of my favorite memories. I think about it every single time we get heavy snow here. But I like that the Lord is connected to it, because we immediately prayed and immediately the Lord came. So I just wanted to bring that up.

But today, even when we deal with things like that — the story that I just shared, this winter storm here — it can be easy to go through day-to-day life and then come to church and just want to hear the Word and go home. This message is not really centered around that, because for those of you that have been coming for the past few weeks, we’ve been in a series called The Throne Room. Everybody say, “The Throne Room.” It just sounds majestic. It sounds divine, it sounds beautiful, and it also sounds epic. I saw the series graphic here the first time and I was like, I almost want that on a shirt or something. It just looks super cool — it’s got the crown and everything. And it should feel that way. The throne room is a special place.

So we’ve been in this series called The Throne Room, and I just want to say — I wrote this in my notes because I didn’t want to forget to say it — I’m proud to call this place home. I’m proud of you guys. I’m proud to call this church home. Because last week, what we did is we came in, we started talking about the throne room, but Jay had us break up into groups, and he had scriptures on the screen that all contained imagery and description of what heaven looks like. A lot of it was out of Revelation, and it really highlighted the throne room specifically. But the purpose of breaking into groups was to talk about heaven.

And I just think it’s so cool that I’m a part of a church where we don’t just come and hear the Word and hear things that give us, let’s say, life advice. Because I feel like that’s a lot of times how we treat church, or at least how I hear people talk about church — it’s life advice, and then we go home. But we actually broke out into groups and got into His Word to discover what heaven is looking like. I think it’s beautiful. We just did that on a Sunday morning. That was just a normal Sunday morning. We can do that at any time. For those that are in our small groups, we do that on a weekly basis, on just a normal evening.

But I think He’s going to continue to show Himself as we continue to press into Him on a regular basis. A lot of you guys that have been coming to Chapel Valley for a while might notice — or maybe you don’t — but I’ve noticed that the flow of our services has slowly started to shift away from the traditional order of service. We’ve been trying to leave more room for the Lord to do what He wants to do in the moment, and I think it’s really, really cool. I think this is a season that He wants to continue to reveal Himself to us, but it does require us to move.

So Jay said in this next season, as we press into the Lord, we’re going to see different facets of Him personally. This isn’t just something that you come to church and hear as a congregant body. This is something where the Lord is going to reveal something to you personally. So “don’t miss this season” is what I wrote down.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

So we got all this information about the throne room, and I know that we’ve brought this scripture up a lot in the series, but I feel like you just can’t have any message in this series without bringing up the same scripture that we’ve been using. So I kind of want to refresh us. Is that okay? Can we spend some time in Scripture today? It will be on the screen, so as Jay always says, this is an open-book test.

I want to take a moment and talk about Revelation and talk about the throne room, because what we’re talking about today — “I Declare Holy” — requires us to have an understanding of the atmosphere in heaven of constant worship and praise. Does that make sense? When you have that understanding and you partake in it and you worship in spirit, as Jay said, it helps close the gap between what you’re doing in your body — just singing out words — and your spirit worshiping straight to God. So it’s bringing what’s happening in heaven down here on earth. So it’s important to understand what it is that’s actually happening in heaven. We need to have a logical understanding of what’s happening.

So you guys can turn with me. Why don’t you turn to Revelation 4 and just keep your mark there. Don’t lose Revelation 4. But I’m going to read just a little bit out of Revelation 1 first. I’m going to start us off with a context of what Revelation is. A lot of times I’ll hear people talk about, “Oh yeah, I like that one scripture in Revelations,” and then they’ll go on and try to quote part of it. But how many of you guys know it’s the Book of Revelation? It’s not just a series of revelations. This was a revelation given specifically to somebody that was written down.

So this is the Revelation that we read, starting at chapter 1, verse 1. Again, you guys can stay at chapter 4. But this is what Revelation is all about, and here’s the context of what we’re going to read. Revelation chapter 1, verse 1 says this: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.”

I want to stop there, because I had a moment of revelation when I read this. I wrote out my whole message, and then I was like, I want context for Revelation, so let’s go back to Revelation 1. And the first sentence — I never realized this — this book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. But realize this: it says, “which God gave him to show to his servants.” See, I always thought it was just God straight to John — like John just woke up one day and God was like, “I need somebody to do this,” and all of a sudden he had this revelation. That’s kind of how I pictured it. But when we read this, God gave the revelation of who Jesus is to Jesus, in a form where Jesus could then give it to His servants. “God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.” And then Jesus made it known by sending His angel to His servant John.

So this was given to John, and the message-delivering method, or whatever you want to call it, was actually an angel. It goes on to talk about John, “who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.” Now verse 3 is important. It says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

We’re not going to get into the meat and the heavy stuff after chapter 5 or so, about a lot of what’s going to happen in the end times. We’re looking specifically at the throne room. But even though we’re staying at the very beginning, according to this, it says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it.” So that includes us, if I’m interpreting that right. The ones that are not only reading it aloud but would hear it are blessed.

And I just want to take a moment and say that I truly believe, when I was writing this message, I felt like the Lord was highlighting somebody who believes the lie that they are not yet qualified to receive the things of God. And I specifically felt like it was somebody who was in a relationship with Jesus — somebody who knew the things of God, was familiar with the church, was familiar with hearing prayers, was familiar with this whole culture or atmosphere that we have — but they still felt unqualified. And I just want to say that that’s a lie, because specifically, you are blessed if you hear these words of what we’re talking about today.

Holy, holy, holy

All right, so we have all the context. This is a revelation given to John, he wrote it down, and now we’re about to hear what that revelation is. It’s a revelation of Jesus Christ, it’s a revelation of the things to come, the end times — it’s a whole lot of stuff. But today we’re talking about the throne room specifically. So we’re going to jump back in. You guys had that page marked — I’m proud of you, you didn’t forget. Let’s go to Revelation 4.

We have read this a lot in the last couple weeks, so I may not pause and really dissect everything as often. I’m going to kind of fire through. If you’re curious, I am reading out of the ESV translation. So Revelation 4, starting at verse 1, says this — and remember, this is John who wrote it down, who had all of this revealed to him: “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven!” As Pastor Jay said last week, he loved the fact that the door was open. The door was open to all. It wasn’t a closed door. “And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’” Verse 2 says, “At once I was in the Spirit.” Everybody say, “The Spirit.” We’re going to come back to that.

I’m going to fire through still. “And behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian” — which I had to look up. It’s apparently a brown and red kind of visual, if you want to know. I didn’t know that. Everybody’s like, “Yeah, duh.” Sorry, I had to Google it. But I thought it was really cool. “And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.”

Verse 6: “And before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say…”

Before we read this — I think we all know what it’s about to say, and it’s obviously on the screen — everything that we just fired through is important to have as context, because we need to have an understanding of just the miraculous awe of what is happening in this room. And it’s not just a show. I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my life, and they do a lot of prep work to dim the lights and have fog and lasers and all this stuff. They weren’t doing that so that this would be an amazing atmosphere. It was automatically happening because of who was on the throne. Do we get that? It was automatically happening because of who was on the throne. It was this atmosphere of praise and worship to His holiness — that magnificent.

So whenever we see all this crazy description in the Word, I don’t think we should always fire through it. I think we should take a moment and visualize what that looks like, because it helps you put into perspective just how holy He is. Does that make sense?

So as we see these heavenly creatures surrounding the throne, they say day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Verse 9: “And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’”

So if we back up a little bit, to verse 8 — we have these heavenly creatures that surround the throne, and what do they say? They say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” They are praising and worshiping. Immediately after that, what happens? The elders that surround the throne and witness this happening fall down, and in verse 11 they say, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things.” And remember, it said they cast their crowns. So we see almost a verbalization of what is happening when they cast their crowns at the feet of Jesus.

I bring that up to say I don’t think the elders are surrounding the throne and waiting for their cue, like in a musical: “Okay, we’ve got to wait for the heavenly creatures to say their thing in worship, and then we fall down and do our praise part.” I think it’s an automatic cycle. It’s an absolutely automatic byproduct of who Jesus is — of who the Lord on the throne is — in this moment specifically, in His awe and His holiness, where they can’t help but fall down. They can’t help but have this moment of praise. They can’t help but cast their crowns.

So we have these different categorized sections in Revelation where it shows us that this happened and then this happened, and there’s an order to things, but it was all an automatic byproduct of who He was. It was a byproduct of being in His presence. Does that make sense? They couldn’t help but have it happen. It was completely automatic.

So when we enter into the presence of God, we should keep that in mind. It automatically happens when you’re in His presence — you cannot help but fall down and give Him praise. That doesn’t always happen, and we’re going to get into that. But this tells me that it’s an automatic reaction. You cannot help but worship, by the very essence of who the Lord God is. You cannot help but worship when in His presence, and you cannot help but bow a knee.

In fact, Psalm 100 says this. This is a very, very popular psalm. We’re reading the entire psalm because it’s super short. And I want you to realize almost this entire psalm is about praise and worship, but then at the very end, it just proves my point that it’s automatic when you’re around His presence. Psalm 100, starting at verse 1: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”

This has all been instruction up until this point, and the final part of the psalm says, “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” So if you were to go up to a random person on the street and spout out the entire psalm as an instruction — “Hey, I have an instruction for you. This is what you are to do: make a joyful noise to the Lord, serve the Lord with gladness, come into His presence with singing, enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, give thanks to Him and bless His name” — they might ask, depending on their relationship with God, “Why would I do that? Why is that an instruction to me?”

And I think the answer is found in the very last part: “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” That’s just straight up why you would worship God — because He’s holy, because He deserves it. So that proves to me that even when we’re not in this crazy atmosphere that we see in Revelation, where there are all these heavenly creatures that can’t help but praise Him and fall down and worship Him — even when you’re not a heavenly creature in all this awe and majesty, but a simple psalmist who knows of His goodness — you can’t help but worship. Why? Because He is good, because His love endures for us forever, and His faithfulness to all generations. It is an automatic byproduct of who He is. Are you guys all with me so far?

Worshiping in spirit

So you can’t help but worship God. You can’t help but worship the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s automatic when you’re in His presence, no matter what. That is a concrete statement. So why is it that we can come into His presence and still not feel it — still not participate in worship? Why is it that we can have moments in worship and church where people are having an amazing moment with the Lord, people have their hands raised, people are really encountering Him, and the person right next to them can be on their phone scrolling Instagram and just not feeling it?

I’ve been there, by the way. I’m not condemning anybody. Fantasy football season rolled around, and I had a lot of talks with the Lord, because I had to be convicted by the Holy Spirit about what I was paying attention to in the moment. Kickoff starts at noon, and we’ve had moments where we are in the Lord’s presence at noon. So I’ve had those moments where I’m not participating. So if it’s automatic to worship Him in His presence, how can you be in His presence and still not worship Him? How is that a possibility?

I think it has to do with the fact that when we worship, we are to worship in spirit. Everybody say, “The Spirit.” Worship in spirit. If we go all the way back to Revelation 4, verse 2, before John saw all of this majestic moment where there was all this praise and worship happening, the first thing he said was, “At once I was in the Spirit.” And what’s the very first thing that happens after he documents that he was in the Spirit? “Behold, a throne stood in heaven.” So once he was in the Spirit, he was witnessing the things of God. He was witnessing this majestic thing that was happening that included the Lord’s presence. Does that make sense?

So when we’re here on earth as just regular human beings, we can be in this moment where we’re asked to worship and sing these songs and come in, but it can be like a routine where we just sing the songs with our words or our body and not really feel it — not experience the Lord. It’s a moment where we’re in our flesh. But when we take the moment to really give genuine worship to Him and allow ourselves to be aligned with the Spirit, that’s when we can have an encounter with Him. That’s why you can have somebody breaking down, bawling at the absolute awe of who God is and what He’s speaking to them, and literally right next to them have somebody checking their phone. That’s why you can have those two moments. I think it requires us to be in the Spirit in order to experience it.

Now, if everybody’s worshiping in the Spirit and we have this atmosphere of praise and worship, it’s very, very difficult for a person to walk in not in the Spirit and just feel nothing. That’s usually why they’re like, “I can’t explain it, but I just feel like I have to participate.” But it’s still a possibility. Does that make sense? You guys are all with me? It’s important to realize that the Spirit is a key component in worship.

So Jay said this last week: when we worship and declare who He is, calling out “holy, holy, holy,” there is something that happens not only in us but in the Spirit that closes the gap between where we are and where God is in heaven. That was Jay’s quote. This is now me: when we declare who He is with our body and we believe it in our heart, we are literally aligning ourselves with who He called us to be, and we shift from singing His praise with our flesh to worshiping Him with our spirit. Does that make sense?

Keep declaring until He reveals Himself

I’ve had conversations with people here — I haven’t asked to share the story, so I’m not going to use their names — but I’ve had conversations with people in this congregation about when I was up here just a few weeks ago and I gave the testimony about healing. I would say that I am healed, and I would declare that out despite what my body felt like. There were moments where I said it and I just wasn’t feeling it at all. But the reason it was important for me to continue to say that over and over and over is because as I said that, I was aligning my body and my flesh with my spirit. And then once I was fully aligned and filled with the Spirit in that moment, and I was declaring out that I am healed, what would happen? Jesus would begin to reveal Himself to me, because I was worshiping in spirit.

And when Jesus reveals Himself to you, you can literally just start to declare out what you are seeing. I think it’s really simple. This is such a hard exercise for me, by the way, but when we invite you guys into a moment of praise — when the worship leader’s up here and they’re saying, “Let’s just take a moment to praise the Lord” — I notice, and I do this too, a lot of times we just want to start clapping, because that is praise to the Lord. But it’s an exercise that we’re unfamiliar with, where that moment is actually a moment where we can begin to declare out who He is with our voice, with our mouth.

So in that moment, if you’re not in the Spirit, you can be like, “Uh, okay, I guess — You are holy, You are mighty, You are gracious, I don’t know.” And you’re kind of saying these things, and they’re all true, but it’s almost like your heart’s not completely rooted in what you’re saying. If that happens and you’re in that moment where you feel like you’re not completely aligned, the answer is to keep going. The answer is to keep saying it out. Because as you continue to say, “You are mighty, You are holy, You are gracious,” your body is slowly coming into alignment with what the Spirit is trying to do in you. And once you are fully aligned, all of a sudden you’re saying, “You are holy, You are mighty, You are gracious,” the Lord starts to reveal Himself to you, you start to see more things of Him, and then you literally just say what you see.

I really hoped I could find my spot in my message, because I was like, as soon as I get to this, I’ll know it’s the moment to share it. So I’m going to share it now. Earlier we were in this place — I hadn’t really spoken to Jay almost all week. He just told me that he was asking me to speak, so we weren’t on the same page at all, or at least I thought. But when we got here and we entered into a time of prayer before service started, I was like, “Oh, I wonder what he’s going to tell people to pray for,” because he was leading the time. And he said exactly what I felt the Lord was leading us to say. We were on the same page — which, I said this earlier, shouldn’t come as a surprise, because we serve the same God and He’s speaking to both of us, so no wonder it’s the same thing.

Jay led us in a time where we would all just start to declare out that He is holy, and just start from there. And as we did, I was amazed at how quickly the atmosphere shifted. Everyone in the room started to declare out who He was, and we prayed over all the pews and all this stuff, and it was an amazing moment. In that moment, as I continued to say, “Lord, You are holy, You are worthy, You are mighty” — everything that was coming to mind — He began to reveal Himself to me. And I’ve never had this happen. It reminds me of all the imagery that they talk about in Revelation a little bit. But I had this picture of Jesus in front of me where I saw Him, and I saw a crown. And it was not just a golden, yellow-metal crown. It was this translucent, fiery white crown.

But it wasn’t just immediately there. As I saw Him and began to declare these things out, the crown revealed itself. And so I realized all these things that we see in Revelation are quite literal. As you see Jesus and you begin to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” and you keep saying it, you are brought into alignment, and He reveals more and more about Himself to you in that moment. And then you just say what you see. So as I saw it, I was like, “You are righteous. You have a crown. You are a King above all kings. You are the name above all names.”

And that’s how it happens. That’s how you go from having a moment where you’re just saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” and you just repeat that, to all of a sudden you have this nonstop list of declarations you’re making to Him, because He’s revealing more about Himself to you. And then all you have to do in that moment is literally say what you are seeing, because you’re worshiping in spirit. I really hope that translates. Does that make sense? I had this moment where I was declaring things out to the Lord, and all of a sudden, as He revealed more of Himself to me, I was able to see a fiery white crown, and I was able to say, “You’re the King above all kings and the name above all names.” And that all of a sudden just came to mind, because that’s what I was seeing. He was revealing more of Himself to me. Okay, now give me a moment, because I need to find where the heck I am. But I knew for a fact that He wanted me to share that when the time was right, and I felt like that was the time.

So just to talk about being in the Spirit a little bit more, Jesus says this in John 4. If we look at John 4, verses 23–24 — for context, we don’t have time to get into the whole story, but He was in Samaria. This is the woman at the well, and He’s talking about giving water that as you drink it, you’ll never go thirsty again. John 4:23–24 says this: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” So Jesus Himself was talking about the moment when we would worship the Father in spirit and truth. And He continues to say, “for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” So Jesus made it possible to bring what is happening in heaven into every situation that we deal with in our normal lives.

Charged up for what’s in front of you

I was talking to Jay about this, but one thing I really wanted to make clear in my message is what you do beyond being in that moment of worship. What I’m proud of is that we’re not a church that just comes in here and gives life advice and then we go home. But even beyond that, we have these moments where we talk about a majestic atmosphere of worship, and that’s great, that’s amazing, and we need to have an understanding of that and how we get there. But being in that isn’t what being a Christian is all about. We’re not just there and then we never leave it and nothing happens. There has to be a next step. There has to be a result of being in that atmosphere and being in that presence.

We’ve had moments at summer camp and winter camp that come to mind. That entire week is really dedicated to having the teenagers come get away from their everyday lives and spend time with God, and a lot of prayer and dedication goes into that week. Typically what happens is the first couple days are a little bit rough. Why? Because everybody’s coming in with baggage. They’re not really ready to worship the Lord. They’re not completely isolated away yet. They still have things going on in their mind that are bothering them, that they’re worried about. But as the week continues on and we are in this atmosphere of worship the entire week, all of a sudden we’re ready to go. We’re not going in with zero percent battery anymore. We’re starting the day with 75, and we’re just trying to fill up when we get into the service.

But even then, we’ll get towards the end of camp, and there will be nights where we spend time in worship, we spend time in ministry, we spend time praying, the Lord is doing amazing things, and we just kind of sit in it. I’ve been to multiple camps from the leadership side where I’ve had leaders that just let that go and will spend 30, 45 minutes in it, and it’s great, and then all of a sudden it will just end. We’ll go to the end of the night, we’ll have cabin time, which is just going back to the cabin and talking about what happened, and the leaders try to help the students and talk through what happened and pray for them. But then I’ve had leaders that have recognized that that moment is only for a season of time, and once you are fully charged up and worshiping in the Spirit — now what do you do with that?

Because we talked last week all about that atmosphere in heaven that we’ve described already today, and bringing that into our everyday life. That’s the application part that I want to talk about now. Coming to church and witnessing who He is and His majesty, and being in this absolutely amazing atmosphere of worship and praise, is great. I want it to happen every single Sunday. But then what do you do with that from there? Do you just enter in and have a really good time and then go home? No. I believe that God wants us to bring that atmosphere into our everyday life — into the obstacles in our life.

That doesn’t mean that you guys just come here and experience it, and now I’m telling you, “Go home and make it happen at home.” I’m saying that even in the moments where it happens here as a group, here at Chapel Valley on Sunday mornings — those are the times when you’re feeling charged up, when you realize that you’re worshiping in the Spirit and Jesus is revealing Himself to you and you declare all of these things that you are seeing. Now it’s time to bring those declarations into the face of whatever you’re dealing with — into the face of all the different obstacles, whether it’s debt or healing or broken relationships or whatever it is. Because now you’re so charged up, you’ve seen who He is, you’re worshiping in spirit, you know without a doubt that He’s the King above kings, the name above all names, He’s powerful and mighty.

So why would you not shift that faith now to whatever it is that’s opposing that, saying, “He’s not a mighty God. Look at you, you’re in debt. If He was mighty, you wouldn’t be in debt. You would have financial freedom”? You get to speak against that now, because you’ve had a revelation of who He is. You say, “No. I declare that He is holy. I declare that He is for me. I declare that He is a provider. In Jesus’ name, I’ll be freed from this financial bondage.” Does that make sense? Do you see the difference there? It requires being charged up, and it requires us to be worshiping in spirit.

I had this analogy — I don’t know if it’s going to work for everybody — but back in 2016 there was a game that came out on everybody’s cell phones. It was super popular, it swept the world, and it was called Pokémon Go. Everybody was obsessed with it. But what we weren’t used to was the fact that this game required so much of your cell phone battery. It was insane. As soon as you started playing it, it would just completely drain your battery. There’d be all these things around town that are available to you that you’re supposed to go out there and get, and you’d start playing for like 40 minutes, and all of a sudden your battery would die. And back in 2016 our phones were old — not quite a Nokia brick, but they were old, and their batteries were already bad. So it drained our batteries like it was nothing.

So what happened? People started to buy mobile battery packs that they would bring around with them, so that their phones would refuse to die, because they knew, “I need to be charged up to go get all of these things that are available to me, and if I’m not charged up, I’m going to miss out.” That’s the only analogy I’m bringing in, as far as Pokémon Go goes. But we need to be charged up, and we need to have that kind of battery in order to go out and get the things that God is making accessible to us.

That’s why you can have moments where you’re like, “I know the Lord’s good, I know He wants me to be tackling this problem, I know He wants me to be praying about this, but I just don’t feel it” — because you’re not charged up. You need to be worshiping in the Spirit, and the only way to get there is to begin worshiping in the flesh. Does that make sense? You force your flesh to worship so it can come into alignment with your spirit. It’s a requirement, and it’s a battle.

That’s the other thing I wanted to bring up that I don’t have anywhere in my notes: it’s a battle. I brought this up last time I spoke, but if you’re in a battle and you swing your sword and you miss, why on earth would you ever drop your sword and quit then? That’s the worst time to do that. If I miss and the threat’s still coming at me, the first thing I’m going to do is try to swing again. Does that make sense? So just because you don’t feel charged up — just because you have prayed or you’ve declared out and you’re not seeing anything move yet — that’s the last time to stop. Because as we’ve seen in the throne room, the heavenly creatures don’t deal with the same thing you do, but they never cease to sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” Everybody with me? It makes sense?

Draw near with confidence

So I really believe that as we begin to have a revelation of who He is, it shifts how we handle our day-to-day problems. It shifts how we see our day-to-day problems. Jay brought this up last week, I believe. I’ve talked to some people, especially youth, who have shared with me, “I like God, I like church, and this is all good, but you’re really stretching me to do a lot. I don’t want to have to read my Bible every single day. I don’t want to spend ten minutes in prayer every night,” or whatever it is. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m telling y’all, I’ve missed the mark when I’ve said I’m going to pray ten minutes a day. So I get it. I totally get it. But they tell me, “I don’t want to do all these radical Christian things. I just want to be a normal Christian. Can I just pray when I need it and come to church on Sundays and be a good person?”

Well, we have scriptural evidence that we are not to do that. We have scriptural evidence that tells us exactly how we are to approach our day-to-day problems. So when we come into church and we’re like, “I need prayer for healing, I need prayer for financial freedom, I need prayer for this relationship in my life with a family member that’s completely broken” — I think a lot of times we’ll treat church almost like a Sunday-only thing. I’ll come there, I’ll get prayer, and hope it gets better.

But Hebrews 4:16 — and Pastor Jay brought this up last week, because we’re talking about the throne room — says this: “Let us then with confidence” — everybody say, “With confidence” — “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So we’ve spent this whole series describing and looking at what the throne room looks like. We’ve spent almost all morning now talking about Revelation 4, describing all these majestic things that are happening in heaven, how there’s an atmosphere of praise and worship in heaven. But then when we read in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help,” it finishes by saying this: that we should do that “in time of need.” That’s the end of that scripture.

When we are in heaven, are we going to be in need of anything? No. So why would we think that when we get this picture of heaven and this amazing throne of grace that we are supposed to draw near to with confidence, that that’s a heaven we only have to deal with after this life is over — when we’re done dealing with all the turmoil and tribulation in this world? Because according to Scripture, we’re supposed to approach that throne in time of need. So when you come into church and you need prayer for all of these things, there’s scriptural evidence right there that that’s the moment to draw near to the throne of grace that’s seen in Revelation. That’s a throne that’s not only in heaven after this life. Not only are we supposed to approach it in time of need, we’re supposed to approach it with confidence.

How do you approach something so majestic and, in our human thought and eyes, unattainable, with confidence? By worshiping in spirit. Remember, when John had the revelation, in the second verse of chapter 4 he says immediately he was in the Spirit, and as soon as he was — behold, he saw the throne. That is something that is accessible to us here on earth, in our time. And our time of need is not after we die and we’re in heaven. Our time of need is right now, and right now is when He tells us to approach the throne. Make sense? Good.

On earth as it is in heaven

Matthew 6:6–13. I actually didn’t even have this fully written out, because I was raised Catholic, and something we had to do every single Sunday was to say the Lord’s Prayer. So I was like, “I can recall that.” Well, I haven’t been Catholic in a long time. I haven’t had to say it. So hopefully I get it right. But we see in the Lord’s Prayer the exact way that we are supposed to pray, and it involves a lot of things that require you to be in a position of confidence, where you’ve already approached the throne. You’ve seen what’s available in heaven, you’ve seen the atmosphere and the majesty of who He is, and once you are filled with that, you can now call it down. That’s the context of the Lord’s Prayer. That’s the context that Jesus went into. It’s absolutely incredible when you really look at it.

Can we actually bring that up? We do. Excuse me. I should pull this up — see, I was so confident in the fact that I was raised at a point where I had to say this every single week. I was like, “Oh, I remember it.” But clearly that’s not the case. So give me one moment. Hebrews 6, starting at verse 6 — oh, I’m in Hebrews. My goodness. Matthew 6, starting at verse 6. Okay, here we go.

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door” — which Pastor Jay brought up last week again — “and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Verse 7: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Verse 8: “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’” Which we talked about last week — it means holy. “Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done.”

In one verse, Jesus gave a little bit of context — don’t just throw up empty prayers — but He’s already saying, as soon as you enter into a time of prayer with the Lord, to start with worship, to declare out holiness. “Our Father who is in heaven, holy is Your name.” That’s the first sentence of the Lord’s Prayer. And then once you are in this moment of worshiping in the Spirit, you continue to say something like this: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s talking about exactly what we’ve already broken down so many different times in this series.

That’s what I’m talking about when I say that we can have this majestic atmosphere that seems so unattainable, and then all of a sudden we want to bring that into our daily situations — on earth as it is in heaven. When Jesus was showing the disciples how to pray, He was saying that you need to be doing this with the context of what is available to you because of what He has made available to us — because of what heaven is already like. “On earth as it is in heaven.” So all these issues that you’re dealing with, you can bring that atmosphere down, and all of those issues cannot help but bow in the face of who Jesus is and the truth of who He is.

When you declare out His holiness, when you declare out that He’s a healer, when you declare out breakthrough — if you’re worshiping in spirit and you have that context, you have a revelation of who He is, and you begin to declare those things out into your earthly issues or obstacles — they can’t stand in the face of it. They can’t help but bow. That’s why it works. That’s why when you declare out with faith, they can’t help but bow and immediately just fall to the name of Jesus. It’s no longer an obstacle. This is so important to get, because we don’t come to church to just have a normal, mediocre time. And that’s actually what I want to get into. So give me a moment.

Not an ordinary God

There’s so many things in our life that we can get a solution for in an earthly way, depending on what we’re going through. Jay kind of alluded to this earlier — he mentioned it in announcements — but there’s so many people that are doing great and gracious things, but they’re not doing it with the Lord involved at all. Most of the youth left right now, but they would know there’s a guy on YouTube that’s infinitely famous for just giving away money. He will buy food for children in Africa and all this amazing, really gracious and charitable stuff. But he’s not a believer. He doesn’t want the Lord involved with any of it. There’s all these influencers that will use their platform for good, and they’re really nice people. You even see people that don’t have any fame or money be super charitable with their time and be good people, but the Lord’s not involved at all.

So my question then would be, why would we think that being a Christian is just about having good morals and being kind to people? Jesus said that they’ll know that you are His disciples by your love for one another. But that’s a byproduct and an automatic given. You’re going to be charitable and nice and kind automatically by what Jesus is doing through you, but that’s not the basis or the goal of what we are doing here on earth. Does that make sense?

It’s so important, because I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to serve a God that’s just ordinary. I don’t want to serve a God who helps me pay off a portion of my bill if I’m in debt. I don’t want to serve a God that’s going to numb the pain that I’m going through when I need healing. I don’t want to serve a God that’s just going to find my car keys when I pray because I lost them. My wife can do that for me, and she does most of the time. My car keys are lost — they’re gone, I know it. They’re on the side of my hip, and we got out of the car and I swung my leg out, and then we got back in and drove home — they’re gone, they’re definitely in the other city that we were in. And she’ll be like, “Well, you needed your keys to drive. So first of all, let’s think about that.” So they’re here, and she helps me find them.

And then — it’s a really long story — but I have a huge bill that I have to pay to MG&E, because I didn’t realize that we weren’t paying them, apparently. So I told my parents about it, and they’re like, “Wow, just let us know if you need any financial help. We’re willing to help.” And I’ve had injuries in the past and health problems that I’ve taken pills for that have helped me get through that. I have earthly solutions for all of these things that we usually pray to God about. I don’t want a God that’s going to keep that as His highest ceiling of what He can do. I want a God who can give me the miraculous. I want a God of miracles — the one that you read about in Scripture, that gives sight to the blind, that lets a lame man walk, that brings freedom to anybody that’s completely in bondage to sin, brings freedom and breakthrough to those that have addictions. That’s the God that I want to serve. And if that’s the case, as we’ve talked about, it requires us to be in the Spirit and declare those things out in order to believe that and see it happen.

But I guess my question would be, if that’s the God that we want to serve, then why do we talk about Him as though He’s ordinary? I don’t know if anybody here does that, but I definitely do. So I’m going to use myself as an example. When I talk to people that don’t have a relationship with Jesus, I’ll say things like, “Oh, you don’t know what job to take? You have an interview coming up? Why don’t you pray about that? God can give you advice.” Or they’ll talk about, “My leg is killing me. I’ve had this nagging injury that’s been bothering me for years.” And I’m like, “Well, you should pray about it, because God’s a healer.” And then I’m like, “Are you okay if I pray for you?” And they’re like, “Yeah.” “Okay, do you want to do it now?” They’re like, “Oh no, I didn’t mean right now. Just in your own time, just be praying for me.” And I’m like, “Oh, okay, sounds good.”

That’s how I talk about God to people in everyday life. So if I’m talking about Him that way and declaring out words about Him that way, why would I ever expect Him to move beyond what I’m saying? I need to get myself to a position where I’m like, “No, God will heal your leg right now. Let me lay hands right now, because I feel Him speaking to me and moving, and He’s a God that is a healer. So let me pray, because we’re going to get this leg healed right now in Jesus’ name.” The power doesn’t come from me, but I know about the power because I have been worshiping in the Spirit all morning and I can’t help but talk about it. “Let me pray for your knee right now, and in Jesus’ name, you are healed.” Why am I not talking about God that way?

So I would just challenge us — if you’re anything like me; again, I can’t make assumptions for how you guys talk about God — to be a people who would walk into day-to-day life already prayed up, already spending time in secret, just as God said, away from all of the eyes, spending time declaring out that He is holy. I did it in my own house, where nobody can see me. I think my wife was sleeping or something like that. I was downstairs, and I was just walking around from our kitchen to our living room — it reminds me of my old house, but we have a kitchen and living room that you can just do a circle in — and the whole time I was going around with my hands up high. And again, I didn’t know what to say or how to get into the atmosphere, so I just said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” and I just said that over and over and over. And I looked down at one point, and my cat was just looking up at me like, “What are you doing?” And I got embarrassed.

And then I had this moment where I’m like, if I feel uncomfortable praising the Lord and putting my hands up in front of my cat, how am I ever expecting Him to move in situations where I’m in front of people? Does that make sense? But if I’m in front of a person and I’m confident in who He is, and I don’t care who’s looking around, and I want to be worshiping in the Spirit, I’m going to say, “Jesus, You are holy. God, You are holy,” and speak that holiness into the situation that is currently in front of me. When people ask me, “Do you believe in God?” I’ll be like, “Yeah” — I don’t even want to say that anymore. Now when people say, “Do you believe in God?” I want to say, “Yeah, He’s holy.” I just want to get to a point where I can’t help but declare out His holiness when I’m talking about Him.

And so I would challenge you guys — obviously, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, so obviously it’s important to be in your Word, so when you are speaking about the Lord, you know the way to speak about Him. But I think even more importantly right now, for the season of time that Chapel Valley’s in, for the season He’s leading us in, I think it’s so important to be people that would regularly be worshiping in spirit and in truth. And if you don’t know how to do that, start by declaring that He is holy, until you are in a moment where He’s revealing Himself to you. Just say it over and over and over and over. I don’t care if you don’t feel it. Keep doing it, because I believe that He’s going to start revealing Himself to you.

I’m telling you guys, I never had that moment in my life before. Jay, actually, could you come up? Are you okay to start worshiping with us? I’ve never had that moment in my life before where I had a revelation of Jesus so clearly — and for those that are watching online, I apologize, I know I’m walking out of frame, I just want to move this podium quickly — but again, I never had a moment where I had this majestic imagery of Jesus, to the point where I saw His face and I saw this fiery white crown above Him. And I kind of sat in awe for a second, because I was like, “I’ve never seen this before. This is great.” I had just spent all this time saying, “You are holy,” but then I realized in that moment I’m supposed to just be saying to Him what I see — that He’s holy and He’s majestic and He’s worthy, and He has this royalness to Him.

And so I would just challenge us to be people that would treat that like regular, normal behavior. And in order to get there, it requires us to be people who are comfortable being in an atmosphere of worship and praise — an atmosphere where we worship in spirit and in truth. Does that make sense? I want to lead us into this time, because that’s exactly what I want us to do right now. It’s nothing that’s forced. If you feel like you don’t feel it, I don’t want you to fake it or anything like that. But I want to invite us into a time where we do worship Him in spirit and in truth.

And again, if you don’t know what to say — we obviously have to be playing something, so you can sing the songs that we’re singing — but I would encourage you to sing your own song to the Lord. If you don’t know where to start, declare that He is holy. Declare that He is holy until you realize the reality of what you’re saying, the meaning of your words, and you have that faith and that genuineness behind your voice. And when you start to declare that out, He will begin to reveal Himself to you. And when that happens, just say out loud what you are seeing.

So if you guys could all stand with me, I’m going to lead us into this time of worship, but I’m going to lead us in by starting off with a time of prayer. And again, as I talked about earlier, it’s not about just being in this atmosphere and that being the finish line — just sitting in it and that being the end of it. When we are in this moment, I truly believe the Lord’s going to show up, and we’re going to have this time where you guys can start to speak who He is into your daily situations. I don’t know what you guys are going through. I don’t know if you have financial bondage, I don’t know if you have addictions, I don’t know if you have broken relationships going on right now. But I do know you’re all human, and I do know none of us is perfect, so I know we all have issues that Jesus wants to bring in.

Or maybe — I was talking to youth about this too. A lot of times I’ll challenge them to pray. I’ll say, “Hey, what can we be praying for you right now? What’s going on in your life?” And a lot of times they’ll be like, “Life is good. I don’t need prayer for anything.” And I would never know what to do with that situation. I’d be like, “Okay, cool.” But then it took one of our youth leaders to say, “In that moment, that’s the perfect time to thank Him. If you have nothing you need prayer for and life is good, let’s just practice giving thanksgiving to Him and saying, ‘Praise God, thank You that my life is where it’s at right now.’” There’s always something to give praise for. Does that make sense?

So let’s enter into this time of prayer first, and then we’ll enter into a time of worship. It’s ministry, but I want to invite us into a moment where we can speak the truth of who God is and who Jesus is to our situations, which can’t help but bow in the face of Jesus. Let’s enter in first.

Father God, just as You have shown us how to pray, Lord, this is a time where we are coming to You and we just say, hallowed be Your name. Holy is Your name. Lord, You are holy. You are worthy. We want to praise You, Lord. Worthy is the Lamb. God, I pray that You just reveal to each and every single person in this room the words of adoration, the words of praise, the words of truth that You want us to be filled with. Lord, I want us to be in a moment where we can freely and confidently, just as it says in Your Word, approach the throne of grace in time of need.

I believe that some of us have come in this morning in a time of need, and so according to Your Word, we are now able to enter and approach the throne of grace. That’s literally our next step. That’s our instruction. And so that’s what we want to enter into right now. And it just starts by worshiping You. It just starts by saying that You are holy. It just starts by saying Your name, Jesus. It just starts by saying that You are worthy, You are holy. And we just enter into this time of worship.

God, I pray that as we continue to say these words out, these declarations of truth, that You would reveal Yourself to us as You promise to do in Your Word. Lord, I’m tired of talking to people like You were an ordinary God. So reveal Yourself to us in the way that You are not ordinary. Reveal Yourself to us in the way that You are majestic. Reveal Yourself to us in the way that You are powerful. Reveal Yourself to us in the way that You are worthy of all of our praise, so that we cannot help but talk about You in that way when we speak Your name. It all starts right now. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.