06/11/2026
The late football coach Vince Lombardi was famous for his commitment to fundamentals. One morning after an embarrassing loss, he gathered his professional football players together for practice. They sat silently, wondering what kind of tongue-lashing was coming.
Lombardi walked to the front of the room, held up a football, and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football!”
Imagine that. Men who had spent years playing the game were being reintroduced to the most basic element of football.
Why would a seasoned coach do such a thing?
Because Lombardi understood something important: excellence is built upon fundamentals. Flashy plays may excite the crowd for a while, but lasting success comes from mastering the basics.
The same principle applies to the church.
We can impress people with organizational charts. We can recite membership statistics. We can sponsor programs, ministries, and activities of every description. Yet if we lose sight of worship, we lose sight of the very reason the church exists.
That is why the book of Revelation speaks so powerfully to our time. Many people think of Revelation primarily as a book of beasts, plagues, and prophecies. Yet woven throughout its pages is a recurring theme: Worship.
Again and again, John pulls back the curtain and allows us to see heaven's throne room. Angels worship. Elders worship. Redeemed sinners worship. All creation worships.
Perhaps the greatest need of God's people today is not a new program or a new strategy, but a renewed understanding of worship. We need to get back to basics. We need to rediscover the principles that lie at the very heart of our relationship with God.
Over the next several weeks we will explore eight worship principles found in Revelation. My prayer is that as we do, our worship will become deeper, richer, and more centered on the One who alone is worthy of our praise.
