(Section 3) Worship Delight Supreme Series

XV. "WORSHIP . . . DELIGHT SUPREME"

Walter H. Werner (1893- 1987) Classic Sermons on Worship pg 117 Joshua 15:13-15

A. Worship is not easily defined. It is so interwoven with prayer and Bible study that it is

not easy to tell where worship ends and prayer and Bible study begin. Worship may take place again and again in the midst of prayer, of Bible study and simple child-like obedience. Worship is not prayer, not Bible study, nor obedience in commission. These are rather the outflow of worship. Joshua prayed, he listened, and he obeyed because he first worshiped.

Keep in mind, Joshua is a mighty general himself.

B. Worship prepares the heart and makes prayer, Bible study, and obedience a great privilege

and joy, a real delight instead of a duty.

C. Worship is estimating God aright, putting Him in His proper place, where He is ALL to us, and putting ourselves in our proper place, where we are nothing in ourselves. When God is ALL, there is no room for others or self. As Joshua worshiped the Captain of the Lord's host, he himself was leveled to the ground, nothing.

D. Worship is in process when we adore our God, when we admire, exalt, and honor Him. It

is done in truth and in Spirit, as we whisper or shout or sing our praises to Him, all

others excluded. It is doing private business with our Savior and Lord, in secret, as

we love Him freely as He loves us. Only those who so worship the Lord, in secret,

alone with Him, do ever worship Him in public. But as they do so daily in secret, it is

bound to break out on them in public in the congregation.

E. Preparation for Worship.

1. Regeneration --- "Ye must be born again." Jn 3:3, 5, 7 A dead man can't worship.

Once the birth from above has taken place, worship has begun.

2. Attitude of Gratitude

When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words be without heart. John Bunyan

The maintenance of a grateful attitude toward the Lord continually demands the utmost care and cultivation.

We just get used to things and therefore take them for granted.

It is human nature it seems.

3. Dedication

A submission of the whole man--body, soul, and spirit--to the Lord. As Joshua

cast himself before the Captain of the Lord's host, he withheld nothing. To do

that meant the giving up of his own will for good and forever, for the will of

Another. What takes place in such an act of surrender and yieldedness, is the

establishing of a firm purpose, never to be altered, of hating sin and loving holiness.

4. Fountain of Joy

True devotion springs only from a glad heart.

F. How to worship

The Holy Spirit does not violate a believer’s personality, but rather uses it to express praise to God. No two Christians have the identical worship experience even though they participate in the same service, at the same time, in the same sanctuary. WW p 25

Attempting to tell a believer how to worship the Lord he loves is a little like undertaking to prescribe for a young man how to admire, adore, and make his love known to his sweetheart.

Do you really love the Lord like that sweetheart?

If so, lovers love to be alone.

G. Classes of Worshipers

On earth there are just two classes of worshipers, the true and the false. In heaven,

there is just one class, the true--both angels and people.

H. Results of Worship

Joshua never stood taller in the presence of the Lord than when he lay prostrate at

His feet on Jericho's plain. There, he was wholly submissive to his God. No saint

ever rises above that, though he grows and grows.

XVI. TRANSFORMATION

Real Worship W.W. pg 29

A. Why do we worship God?

1. Because He is worthy.

2. Because He has commanded us to worship Him.

B. True worship is a transforming experience.

C. Every Christian is either a "conformer" or a "transformer." We are either fashioning our lives by pressure from without, or we are transforming our lives by power from within. The difference is--- worship.

Read Romans 12:1-2 KJV

Romans 12:1-2 Amplified Version

(v. 1) "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies--presenting all your members and faculties--as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.”

(v. 2) “Do not be conformed to this world--this age, fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs. But be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind--by its new ideals and its new attitude--so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].”