We only discover the counterfeit when we know the truth. We only discover the fake when we know the original. We only know the unworthy when we know the worthy.

How does God search our hearts and get to the bottom of what is hurtful in us? How do we see what is sinful in us? By seeing and knowing His worth. By “tasting” and experiencing His worth in our hearts. His worth (or worthiness) is like a fire that burns away all that is unworthy in us.

When we stand in worship before Jesus, we are proclaiming His worth. We are giving Him the worship of our hearts worthy of His name. We are ascribing to Him the honor and the glory due to His name. We see His majesty, His beauty, His holiness and we are “lost in wonder”. Not lost in the sense that we forget and empty ourselves. But in the sense that we can do no other but to raise our hands, open our mouths, bow our knees, surrender ourselves to Him. In such moments, who He is both compels and demands our highest praise and deepest worship.

When this occurs – as it should for all who are “new creations in Christ,” forgiven and redeemed – what is unworthy of Him comes to the surface. We then bring our desires and thoughts, actions and habits, to the altar of our worship. And there the fire of His worth consumes them.

There is too often in too many of us an attitude that says, “If the Holy Spirit finds something in me, He’ll bring it to my attention.” But the desire and responsibility of the redeemed is to seek and to ask “search me and see if there is any wicked way in me.” We are to come and to worship Him who is worthy to be praised. We are to prepare our hearts to come before Him who is “holy, holy, holy”.

The praise and worship of God’s people does not begin with us and Him coming to serve us. Rather, it begins with Him and us coming to serve Him. For He alone is worthy of all praise, not any created being or redeemed human being.

Elim Grace, as your pastor, I cannot stress enough how important our time of praise and worship is together, whether on Sundays or at Touch Down. Only in the presence of the living God can we discern things as they are in truth. The purity and the holiness of God’s people are a direct reflection of the purity and holiness of God. We cannot see God without purity of heart. We cannot live in the power of the Spirit without holiness of life. We cannot be transformed into the likeness of Jesus without standing before His worth.

So, let us come and stand before Him who is worthy. Let His worth reveal what is unworthy in us and burn it away, as it were, on the altar of our worship. Let us be living sacrifices in the light and the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.