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[MUSIC] [piano playing] ♪ Won't it be wonderful there ♪ ♪ Having no burdens to bear ♪

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♪ Joyfully singing and joy bells will be ringing ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful there ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful there ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful there ♪

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♪ Having, having no burden to bear ♪ ♪ I'll be joyously, joyously singing ♪ ♪ And you know your best ♪ ♪ I know they will be real ♪

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♪ Won't it be ♪ ♪ Won't it be ♪ ♪ Wonderful ♪ ♪ Wonderful there ♪

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♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ Won't it be wonderful? Won't it be wonderful?

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Having no burdens. Having no burdens. Burdens to bear. Burdens to bear.

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Over. Over inside. Oh, city beautiful. City beautiful.

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Won't it be. Won't it be wonderful? ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ I'll meet ♪

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♪ I'll meet you there ♪ ♪ Oh won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪

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♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Having no burdens ♪ ♪ Having no burdens ♪ ♪ Burdens to bear ♪

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♪ Burdens to bear ♪ ♪ Over ♪ ♪ Over in fire ♪ ♪ City built ♪

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♪ Civil War's plan ♪ ♪ Won't it be ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ I'll meet you ♪

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♪ I'll meet you there ♪ ♪ We're gonna be caught up ♪ ♪ To meet him ♪ ♪ In the middle of the air ♪

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♪ Now my brothers and my sisters ♪ ♪ Will you meet me there ♪ ♪ We're gonna meet up with the saint of old ♪ ♪ And the happy and never been told ♪

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♪ Won't it be ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ I'll meet ♪ ♪ I'll meet you there ♪

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♪ I said we're gonna be caught up ♪ ♪ All right ♪ ♪ To meet him ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪

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♪ In the middle of the air ♪ ♪ All right ♪ ♪ Now my sisters ♪ ♪ And all my brothers ♪

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♪ Will you meet me there ♪ ♪ We're gonna meet up with the saints of old ♪ ♪ And the happy ♪ ♪ And never been told ♪

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♪ Won't it be ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ I'll meet ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪

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♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Oh, it'd be wonderful ♪

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♪ Gonna see Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, it'd be wonderful ♪ ♪ Gonna see Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, it'd be wonderful ♪

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♪ Gonna tell him about my troubles down here ♪ ♪ Oh, it'd be wonderful ♪ ♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Oh, it'd be wonderful ♪

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♪ Won't it be wonderful ♪ ♪ Oh, it'd be wonderful ♪ ♪ I'll meet ♪ ♪ I'll meet you ♪

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there. Amen. Amen. I invite your attention to the book of the prophet Isaiah, the sixth chapter. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one

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had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.

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And the post of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips,

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"And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. "For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, "having a live coal in his hand,

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"which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. "And he laid it upon my mouth and said, "Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord

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saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said "Then said I, Here am I, send me." Worship is a journey. It is a spiritual journey, a journey from mystery to mission. So as focus on worship and mystery and mission, we recognize the fact

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that the worship experience is enshrouded in mystery. It occurs behind a veil. God wraps himself in a cloud. By day and by night, the worshiper follows a cloud. In good times and in bad times, times, there is this mystery that we follow. We worship God,

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the one we cannot see, and we are summoned by His voice, which is distinguished from a multitude of voices that clamor our loyalties. The fact that we appear upon the stage of time at this particular point in time and at this place is a mystery.

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Worship is an awesome experience. It is identified with the creature feeling of humility in the presence of the eternal. If you've never experienced the feeling of dependence on the divine presence, then you have not

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worshiped. Dependence upon that spiritual presence which is outside yourself, which is far more than you can ever be. Worship makes us aware of how small and insignificant we are. are and how big and how great God is. Yes, to worship is to

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engage in a romance with the eternal. And involved in it is is the confrontation of certain existential questions. "Why was I born? What am I to do? Where am I going? And then why me?" In worship, the creature is in rapt attention, focused on the

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Creator. Isaiah says in the language of our text, "In the year King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord." To worship is to get a vision of the eternal. Let me repeat that. To worship is to get a vision of the eternal. You know, many of us are so caught

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up with that which is temporary that we do not experience the eternal. We're so caught up with, "What am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to stay and how I'm going to meet the mortgage payments on the car? We're so

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caught up with these mundane things, and they are important. But we get so caught up with these things that we lose sight of the eternal. So, we find ourselves focusing more on how we feel and these things in relationship to those--to that

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healing. But Isaiah has now gone through some rather trying times. He says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord." Also. I saw also. No doubt the prophet had gone to the funeral parlor, gazed upon the lifeless form of

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the king, and was heavy with grief as he comes to the temple. And while he's there at the temple, he has a worship experience. The heavens opened. He'd just seen the king, who's dead. But now he sees the king of kings. He has experienced the

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invasion of death, and that's a mystery, how we leave here as well as how we come here. Both of those, life and death, are mysteries. Well, the death of Uzziah was a crushing blow to Judah. It shook Isaiah at his roots when the news circulated

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that King Uzziah is dead. I remember when President Franklin Roosevelt died, how the nation was disturbed and how people all over the country, particularly poor people who had been helped much by his programs, wondered how they'd be able to go now that Roosevelt is dead.

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I remember the picture of one lady, African American, who took her child and held him up, held her up, rather, to see, and said, "Look, honey, he died for you." And that was circulated in papers all across the country. There was a great deal of concern, a great deal of shock when the president passed away. Now here the king, Isaiah, who had been instrumental

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in the wave of prosperity that the country had experienced, who had been instrumental in providing a strong military force, and now he has died. And Isaiah, the king of Israel, And Isaiah, along with many others, shared the grief. And now he finds himself in the temple. And in the midst of all

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of these earthly concerns, he sees the Lord. And oh, how wonderful that is. Many times we come, as possibly some of us morning with concerns that are perplexing. We come troubled by anxieties and all of the fears that may surround us, but to be

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able to look beyond all of that and see the Lord is to worship. And sometimes there is an ursia that has to die. Sometimes sometimes there are certain forces that we have to push aside in order to get a real good glimpse of God. Now,

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sometimes people don't really recognize who God is until they're flat on their backs with some dreadful illness. And then for the first time in their lives, they come to grips with is, Uzziah is dead. And to worship beyond the realm of the

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physical and the rational, to the rational, is important. In other words, if we're going to limit worship to the physical, sometimes some people don't get any farther than what somebody else has on. One dear sister who's going on to heaven now,

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you said, "Rev. get out of that robe, let me see what you look like out of the robe." Well, that's not the main concern. And many of us change clothes, you know, maybe sometimes I've seen some brothers change clothes

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two or three times, you know, in the course of the day because many people are focusing on what does he have on or what does she have on? But it must get physical. We have these aids to worship. We have these windows.

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We have the organ and other instruments and all of those things that are aids to worship, but when we really worship, we are pushed beyond the physical. And we go even beyond our beyond our intellect. When Isaiah has this vision, he's

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beyond the intellect, so to speak. The heaven's open and he sees God high and lifted up beyond all of these things. He's and lifted up, and his train fills the temple, fills the temple. A friend of mine was talking about a Russian that

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was saying they were flying in the plane some 30,000 feet. He said, "Look here. See up here? Where's your God? No God up here. Look, just clouds." He said, "Look, we're just flying He said, "That's not high enough." He said, "You can't

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even see the skirts of His garments." They've got to get higher than that. He is the creator of heaven and earth. And so we must get beyond, and to really worship is to get beyond to get beyond the rational. This is what Paul says, "Well, I was

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caught up in the third heaven, and I saw things that no man was permitted to see." In other words, he had a worship experience. Have you ever had something that thrilled you so you just couldn't explain it? You didn't have--they didn't have

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words that you wanted to explain it? Well, real worship is an expressible. When you read the visions of the prophet Ezekiel and the apostle John, and now as you look at this vision here of Isaiah, it's not something you can explain. Language seems to

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be insufficient to explain it all. So to worship is to enter the realm of the esoteric, to go beyond the ordinary, beyond the familiar to the unfamiliar. To really worship, we need to pull off our shoes, recognizing that the ground on which we stand is

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holy ground. Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord, and upon him were the seraphs, each one had six wings. With two, they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying." They were calling out to each other, "Holy, holy.

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Holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. Holy means He's mysterious. He's supernatural. He is transcendent. He's over all of these little concerns that call for our attention. God's beyond all of that. He's over

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it. He loves us, and He's concerned about us, but He is above it and he has power over everything. So at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shoot and the temple is filled with smoke. You see, worship is seeing the

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Lord. He said, "I saw the Lord." Worship is hearing his voice. in the midst of a holy hush. You know, sometimes you can just be alone and everything is quiet.

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And in the midst of the quietness, you can hear God. - Yes, Lord. - Everybody who worships has had that experience.

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You're not looking for some entertainment. Somebody said, "Well, wait a minute. "Let's get the music going." You don't have to have the music.

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There is a holy, holy hush. And in the midst of it, God speaks. That's what the Bible is telling us in the experience with Elijah. He heard the wind and he thought God was in the wind, but God wasn't in the

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wind. There was the earthquake and the earth all around shook and he thought God was in the earth, but God was not in the earthquake. And then there was fire around the mountain, but God was not in the fire. But then there came just a still small voice, and in that still small voice was God. He

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heard the voice of God. And so in the mysteries of our worship experience, it is important that we not only see the Lord. Can you see God in the midst of your sickness? Can you see God in the midst of your disappointments?

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Can you see God in the midst of the conflicts of this life? Can we see God? If we can see God, then we can say, well, in spite of this, I worship.

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In spite of the aches and pains, I worship. I see God. I see the goodness, I see the presence of God in the midst of all of the vicissitudes of life.

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That's really what it means to worship. And when we worship, we can cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee.

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Holy, holy, holy, there is none beside thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity. Secondly, when we worship, we have the creature feeling, which I alluded to earlier. We feel our nothingness in the presence of the eternal. In worship, we see ourselves in relationship to the eternal mystery. When I say I see myself in relationship

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And Isaiah has this experience, he cries out, "Woe is me, for I'm ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." So in worship we encounter the one who rules over all the mysteries of our lives.

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You know I'm always talking about the mystery of our history. There's a mystery in your history. You can't explain it. You can go so far, you can talk about some things that you've done,

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some things that you have achieved, but in spite of all of that, there is an element of mystery in your history as well as my history.

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So in the worship experience, we have this inward feeling. We experience the eminence of God. God speaks, not only does He act and speak outside us, but He also acts within us.

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God speaks to us. And when that happens, we have worship. That was a young man in the city some years ago who had a trampoline accident.

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And it was a concern of the family and friends as to whether or not he would walk again. He was in the hospital. His father came to visit him.

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And he said to him, "Daddy, "Jesus was in this room last night." He said, "He was?" I said, "Yes." He said, "He came." He said, "Did you ask him about whether or not you'd walk

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again?" He said, "I clean forgot to ask him." It was so wonderful. It was such a thrilling experience when he I had a great experience when he came into my room that I forgot about whether or not I'd walk again. Being in his presence.

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It's so wonderful that many of these concerns, these earthly concerns, physical concerns, aches and pains are so minor when it comes to having fellowship with him. I just forgot to ask when you have fellowship with Him that you can bear the

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burdens of this life and you can look up when all around you seems to be looking down. It's a wonderful thing. That's the mystery of the worship experience. So the worship experience, my brothers and sisters, is to hear the voice

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God. It is to see God. It is to experience God. It is to hear the voice of God speaking to you. And often we used to put on the bulletin for worship. We enter to worship and we depart to serve. When he sees God, when the prophet hears the voice of

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God. When he feels the presence of God, that spiritual presence above all other voices and concerns, then comes the commission. "Who will go for me? Whom shall I send?" It's a call service. It's a call to engage in mission. And every mystery,

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as far as the worship experience is concerned, should end in mission. If we just sat here all the time and admired the goodness of God, it would leave the world in a mess. But we ought to be inspired to do something about it. This morning

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morning, I listened about reports from Angola on TV, and it was something that gripped my heart to see those children, some with just one leg, having no place to go, staying here and there and eating out of garbage cans and all of that. And I was

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stricken by that. But if we're just stricken by it and we don't do anything about it, then that doesn't really help. But to experience the mystery and to be so motivated by the divine presence to go out and to do something about it to change

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those conditions, that's the goal of the worship experience. So Isaiah went from mourning to mission, from mourning the death of Uzziah to being God's missionary. And when we worship, we worship, we go from worship to work. We see the Lord. We're

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cleansed. We hear His Word. We respond to His call. We do His work. And He says, "Go tell this people. Go tell them." In other words, when you really worship, you have a story to tell. You story that you can tell wherever you go. Some people, you know,

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get so nervous when they--when you ask them to talk about God. But when you really worship-- AUDIENCE: Yes. KENNETH: --you're ready to talk about what God has done for you--(Audience Agrees)-- and what God is doing in your life. So you have a story to

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tell, yes? You can tell it anywhere, tell it anytime. You have a story to tell of the goodness of God when you how he lifted you up from the muck and mire.

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He planted your feet on solid ground, solid rock, that enables you to stand

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in the midst of all of the vicissitudes of this life. So as we come to the hymn of dedication,

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there may be someone here who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.

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Maybe you belong to another church and you want to unite with the family of God here, we invite you to come. It's an open door. The worship experience that leads from mystery to mission.

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We invite you to come. Unite with the people of God here as we sing it. There's room at the cross. We invite you to come.

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(Music) ♪ The door of the church is open ♪ ♪ 'Tis a shadow from which we can hide ♪ ♪ And His grace so free ♪

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♪ Gets the building for me ♪ ♪ The meeting place of Eden ♪ ♪ And my heaven's mercy ♪ ♪ There's room at the cross for you ♪

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♪ There's room at the cross for you ♪ ♪ Though millions have come ♪ ♪ There's still room for one ♪ ♪ Yes, there's room at the cross for you ♪

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♪ Though millions have come here for free ♪ [MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ And the gates that rail across Canada ♪

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♪ Before it's too late ♪ ♪ Let Rome at the cross for you ♪ ♪ Let Rome at the cross for you ♪ you. Glory to God. There's still room for one. There's room at

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you. Lord, we thank you that you are present, whatever may be the condition or circumstance, for us to take that journey from mystery to mission. Help us this day and every day. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God, our Father,

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and Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. (trumpet playing) ♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ [MUSIC PLAYING]

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