Sermon Central
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What Is Worship? Series
Contributed by Billy Ricks on Apr 20, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: What is worship? Is it more than singing, praising. Worship defined.
There is an old story about a man who dreamed that an angel escorted him to church one Sunday. There he saw the keyboard musician playing vigorously, the praise team singing, the musicians playing their instruments with gusto. But the man heard no sound. The congregation was singing, but the sound was utterly muted. When the minister rose to speak, his lips moved, but there was no volume. In amazement, the man turned to his escort for an explanation.
“This is the way it sounds to us in heaven,” said the angel, “You hear nothing because there is nothing to hear. These people are engaged in the form of worship, but their thoughts are on other things and their hearts are far away.”
Why do you believe that there was no sound, what could their hearts be focused on.
Let us ponder a little.
Food, Sports, X boxes, Work, Play, bills, other people, buildings.
DL moody “You don’t have to go to foreign heathen lands to find false God’s
You can find them right here in the US. Whatever you make most of is your God.
Rich and poor learned and unlearned, all classes of men and women are guilty of this sin. A man may make a God of himself, plastic surgery, liposuction, implants, etc. . . of a child, a mother, of some precious gift bestowed upon him.
To understand whether or not we are truly worshipping me must know what worshipping is.
I. Worship Defined
A) It isn’t
1) As we saw from the introduction it isn’t merely going through the motions.
2) It is not having the best praise band, the best most articulate preacher, the biggest choir.
3) It is giving our best to God.
4) It Is not form, it is focus
B) It is
1) Found for the first time.
a) Genesis 22.5
i) Abraham is told to sacrifice Issac
ii) Hebrew word used for Worship
Shachah(Shaw-Khaw)
To bow, to bow down, prostrate one self.
iii) 2 Kings 17.36 “But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To Him you shall bow down an to Him offer sacrifices.”
Humbling yourself in the holy presence of a worthy God.
When was the last time you bowed in God’s presence?
b) The word is a verb, an action word.
1) But the action is not meant to only be physical
2) What other action words is this word worship linked to in this chapter?
aa) Love and Obedience.
Love
1) Genesis 22.2 “He (God) said “Take now you son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and got to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offereing on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
God wants us to sacrifice the things we most want on an altar of worship to Him.
Believing as Abraham did that God can resurrect our that most precious thing.
Why? In doing so we show our love for God is greater than our love for others, things, people etc.
It is a relationship That God desires.
Obedience
1) God also wants us to sacrifice ourselves
2) Romans 12.1,2
2) Foundation for all time
b) Genesis begins the worship of God and in Revelation 22
We see that God will be worshipped for eternity
What else should we devote our time, our energy, our breath, to but the one who gave us all of these.
Now that worship has been defined, do you know that God desires our worship
II. Worship Desired
A) Created us to worship
Hosea 6.6 “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
1) --God wants the fact of worship in your life not the form
2)
Micah 6.8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”
Preceded by does God want burnt sacrifices
1) Require: Hebrew -- ãÌÇøÀéׄåùÑ, ãÌÈøÇùÑ [darash /daw·rash/]
to ask for, require, demand. to practice, study, follow, seek with application.
To know
To do
2) Humbly: Hebrew öÈðåÌòÇ, öÈðÇò [tsana` /tsaw·nah/]
to be humble, be modest, be lowly.
Job – Job 42.1-6 saw God high and lifted up : humbled by God’s presence, He saw God
Isaiah 6.5 – Woe is me, humbled by God’s holiness
Ezekiel – 1.28 Such was the appearnce of the likeness of the glory
of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice
speaking. (Grounded by God’s glory)
B) True worship
1) Brings us into God’s presence
Abraham, Moses, others
