Vineyard Church of Knox County
Worship As It Is In Heaven
Sermon Audio from Sunday, January 8, 2006 — Well, it's that time of year again, the beginning of a new calendar, at which time we take stock of our lives and resolve to make changes. We examine what's really important in our lives and what's not so important and try to do life better. Many people try to shed a few pounds, a worthy goal if you are unhealthy and overweight but a not-so-worthy goal if you are not overweight. Wouldn't you agree? Some people, usually women, look at very unrealistic, air-brushed pictures of other women on magazine covers and walk away thinking, "I'm fat," when in reality, they are healthy. It's the models who are unhealthy.
My point is this, in order to make good and right resolutions, we have to use the right standards; we have to go to the right sources. Our standard as Christians is Jesus Christ and our source for truth is the Bible. We resolve to be more like Jesus this year as individuals and as a church. Our standard as a church is our mission statement. This is how we determine what needs to change and how we can improve. Are we being obedient to the vision and mission God has given us. That's what we want to ask each January. We have decided that during the first few weeks of each year, we, too, would take stock of the church and of our lives as Christians, for the purpose of resolving to be more like Jesus, to better follow God. Well our mission is stated clearly on the front of the bulletin each week. We have been called to develop a worshiping community of empowered disciples of Jesus that transforms the world with the powerful love of God, one person at a time for the glory of God. Today we begin by considering what it means to develop a worshiping community. Worship is most central to God and to us as Christians and us in the Vineyard because worship is central to the Bible and is central in heaven. Among other things, heaven is a place where things work the way they are supposed to work, where people are doing only that which they are supposed to be doing, where God is actually ruler and it looks like it. Heaven is what God intends for us and is what God is restoring our world to. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." John was given a revelation of the scene in heaven at present and in the future. The curtain was peeled back for a moment and John saw God's heavenly kingdom: God on the throne and Jesus right with him. And do you know what else he saw? Kingdom worship. I'm so grateful he wrote this down so you and I could see, too, what Kingdom worship looks like. We, at the Vineyard, long to become a Kingdom worshiping community. That's one of our New Year's resolutions every year. And it is God's resolution for us as a church and as individuals. Let's peer into heaven with John to see what Kingdom worship looks like.
