Time to Worship God!

Ezra 3-4; Psalm 28; Proverbs 20:24-25

 

When’s the right time to worship God? Sundays at 10:40 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.? Early every morning? Late every night, just before bed? Does everything have to be “just right” before it is time to come before God’s throne in praise and sacrifice?

 

Judah had been in exile, but after 70 years Cyrus sent the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild God’s temple. Well before the new temple was completed, the people began to offer burnt sacrifices to the LORD:

 

On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD’s temple had not yet been laid. – Ezra 3:6

 

They didn’t even wait for the temple’s foundation to be laid! As soon as they had an altar, the Jewish remnants were offering sacrifices in worship to God!

 

Since Jesus Christ died on the cross, our altar is in place. Hebrews 13:10 tells us: “We have an altar—of grace (Heb. 13:9)—from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat! Our altar’s in place; we should be worshiping God through our Lord Jesus Christ and by His sacrifice any chance we get, whether at appointed times like worship services or at “freewill offering times”—times when we approach the altar simply because our hearts are bursting to offer God the worship He deserves!

 

Not only is our altar in place, but our temple foundation has been laid, and the temple is being built:

 

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. – Eph. 2:19-22

 

Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of this new temple, the apostles and prophets are the foundation, and we are being built up together with the rest of the church to be God’s holy temple where God’s Spirit lives!

 

The altar’s always ready. The sacrifice—the Lamb of God—has been offered. The foundation is complete and the temple walls are going up. The time is right! Worship God through Jesus Christ!

 

Father, thank You for establishing an age of worship through Jesus Christ’s life among us, death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave. I will worship You. May I lead my family, my brothers and sisters in Christ, my neighbors and the world to worship You, too!