The Features Of Worship Series

Title: The Features of worship

This sermon is part 3 of our series on worship and was preached by Tony Hamilton worship leader at Calvary Assembly of God.

This morning we are going to be looking at the features of worship or another way to say it, the facets of our Sunday morning worship time.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that "Praise is our inner health made audible." How we outwardly worship God demonstrates how our heart inside feels about God.

So this morning we are going to look at what some of the features of our Worship should be.

Then we will look at why we don't do these things. And finally we will look at why we should be doing these things during worship.

Even though we are going to look today at the actions of worship, we need to start at a base level. Behind every action is an attitude. Worship is more attitude than action. Jesus tells us that true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). This means we worship from a pure heart!

So our worship is to glorify and exalt God; to show our loyalty and admiration to our Heavenly Father! It should not be about how we feel or if we want to or not. It is all about God. Our focus is on God, our Foundation is found in God. The features of our worship should also be about God as well. We need to remember that our worship is a sacrifice. In Hebrews 13:15 it says "...let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise..."

It is a sacrifice. We give up ourselves and what we want. We make it a sacrifice to what God wants.

1. What are some of the acceptable features or facets of worship

For this, we will look into the psalms

Here are some of the dynamic (expressive) features of our worship

Lets read psalm 150

Psalm 150

Let All Things Praise the LORD

1 Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary;

Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;

Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;

Praise Him with the lute and harp!

4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;

Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!

5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;

Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD!

We see in this psalm, singing, playing musical instruments and dancing. All wonderful expressive ways to worship God.

Now, lets read Psalm 47 verse 1 and Psalm 20 5-7

Psalm 47

1 Clap your hands, all you nations;

shout to God with cries of joy.

Psalm 20

5 May we shout for joy over your victory

and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the LORD grant all your requests.

6 Now this I know:

The LORD gives victory to his anointed.

He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary

with the victorious power of his right hand.

7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

In all of these verses we see outward ways to worship God. We see shouting, clapping and waving banners. Before we saw singing, playing instruments and dancing. These are all wonderful expressive ways that we can worship God during our song service. These are not my ways, these are not Pastor's ways, these are God's ways. He is telling us the proper and acceptable ways to worship Him. So, I will let the scriptures here speak for themselves. There is no better teacher then God.

Ok, so there are quiet times during the music and altar time too. We shouldn't be disruptive and act all crazy during these quiet times. So you ask, Tony.. what do we do then. Do we just stand there. Do we just sit back and dig the music. No. You can always sing, and here are some other Biblical more quiet and introspective ways to worship.

Psalm 141

1 I call to you, LORD, come quickly to me;

hear me when I call to you.

2 May my prayer be set before you like incense;

may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 95

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

7 for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Psalm 77

6 I remembered my songs in the night.

My heart meditated and my spirit asked:

Psalm 43

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God, my joy and my delight.