Believe Week 11 - Worship Series

Believe 11 - Worship

November 30, 2014

Today, we move into the second part of our BELIEVE series. We’re moving from asking “What do we believe?” to “What should we do?” Our first answer is to Worship and give honor to God. Why should we worship and honor God? We’ve really been talking about that over the first 10 weeks of our series. We worship and honor God because:

1. We believe in the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the one true God.

2. We believe God is involved in our lives and cares about us. God is personal.

3. We believe God restores us to a right relationship through His grace.

4. We believe we receive salvation through faith in Christ.

5. We believe God’s Word is true and should direct our beliefs and actions.

6. We believe we are loved and important to God because we are His children.

7. We believe God has set a special place, heaven, for us to continue to live after we die, when we have faith in Him.

Those are some of the beliefs we’ve talked about over the past weeks. Worship is about giving praise and honor to God, it’s not an either or - - - but a both and. Worship is not just public or private. It is both. God wants us to worship him together as His Church and to worship Him in our private lives as His children.

Over the centuries worship has changed. We can say it’s evolved. But some people would not like that. I prefer to think – worship has changed and adapted to the needs of every generation. Yet, that can be really confusing. We all come into worship with various expectations of what should happen in worship.

Some say worship is how we do certain things ~

1. When we sing, we should sing standing up, sitting down, sing with arms lifted high, sing with no expression at all. Without instruments, with organ and piano. With all types of instruments.

2. Prayer should be short – prayer should be long, or in groups, pray standing, pray kneeling.

3. Communion should be weekly / monthly, even quarterly / as needed.

a. Use unleavened bread and wine / unleavened bread and grape juice.

b. Bread and grape juice / bread and wine / doritos and pop.

4. Sermons should be 15 minutes. Sermons should be 45 minutes. Filled with stories. No stories. Sermons should be simple. Should sound like you’re in a seminary class. Should be fire and brimstone / should be encouraging.

Some say worship with the church is not necessary. Just do your own thing alone with God. Others say worship is about community and being with other believers.

Maybe you’ve felt the same. You know you want to connect with God in worship. But you’ve been confused as to how. You’re not alone.

In Psalm 95, the the Psalmist wrote these words ~

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Verse 6 tells us 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

So, what does all this mean? What is worship and how do we do it?

Worship is defined as ~ Adoring reverence or honor. To show profound religious devotion and respect to; adore or venerate (God or any person or thing considered divine); To be devoted to and full of admiration for; To have or express feelings of profound adoration.

With that in mind, we need to determine who or what is the object of our worship. Is the object of our worship God? Is it our children? Is it the next great vacation? Is it our summer homes, our winter homes? Is it the next gadget we can buy? Is it ourselves? You get the point. The object of our worship can be a multitude of things. And if you think, oh that’s silly, you know it’s God, then check your worship priorities.

Is Sunday morning reserved for corporate worship, worshiping Jesus as a community of believers? Or do you make excuses for not being here? Do you justify why you don’t need to wake up and come here or wherever you go? Do you spend time when you’re alone worshiping God?