Heart To Worship - What Is Worship Series

David & Phyllis Roch - Heart to Change the World - droch@pris.ca

To worship is to magnify God, and because God is so multifaceted, to magnify Him or to worship Him will be our privilege throughout eternity. Rev. 4:8-11 tells us that there is continual worship that is going on for ever and ever.

We are here today for different reasons …. And we pray that all of our desire is to allow the Holy Spirit to give us a fresh insight into worship …..

Notice the diagram on your outline ……(talk about diagram)…… worship is a very large subject & we are going to be learning about being worshippers, most specifically worshiping God through music.

What is worship?

Looking at the Old and New Testaments, we find worship has to do with our whole being - our body, soul, and spirit.

Ps. 138:1 I will praise you with my whole heart……

1 Cor. 14:15

Romans 12:1 in the New American Standard says, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.

Worship is a means of spiritually serving ….. who or what? Whomever or whatever we choose to serve.

Look at some OT definitions:

OT

TOPIC

HEBREW WORD

DEFINITION

SCRIPTURES

OT

WORSHIP 172 times

shachah

fall down

to bow down

reverence

prostrate oneself

before superior in homage

before God in worship

stoop

crouch

Ex. 4:29-31

Neh. 8:6

II Chron. 7:3

& many more

FALSE WORSHIP

atsab

17 times (worship once)

grieve

displeased

hurt

sorry

vexed

worship

wrest

pain, to be in pain,

be pained, to cause pain

torture

to shape, fashion, make, form, stretch into shape

to form, copy, fashion

Jer. 44:19

There is a progression in worship that is shown in the Scriptures:

1. Elaborate sacrifices - an outward form of worship

1. At the beginning of the Old Testament God prescribed a very specific manner of how, when, who and where to worship HIM. It involved elaborate sacrifices and taught the people an outward form of worship. All of Leviticus

For about 12 years both Moses’ Tabernacle and David’s Tabernacle functioned at the same time, but the glory of the Lord was in David’s Tabernacle.

2. Individual worship 1 Chronicles 25&26

2. Then, God thru David introduced the concept of individual worship. It was by faith and from the heart. Now all could come into the Most Holy Place to worship. David also appointed specific worshipers as well- the Levites . 1 Chronicles 25 &26

3. Worship in spirit and truth John 4:23 - 24

3. When Jesus came, He was a worshipper, and He lived a new way of worship.

NT

WORSHIP

proskunew proskuneo

60

to kiss,

like a dog licking his master's hand

worship

to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence

by kneeling or prostration, to do homage (to one)

to God

to Christ

FALSE WORSHIP

sebomai

latreuw latreuo

21

religious

to revere

to worship

to serve for hire

to serve, minister to, either to the gods or men

-to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in

the observance of the rites instituted for his worship

-of priests, to officiate, to discharge the sacred office

Matt. 15:9

Mr. 7:7

Acts 7:42

AS WORSHIP TO MAN

doxa

168 times

opinion

judgment

view

-estimate, whether good or bad

-concerning one, resulting in praise, honor, and glory

-the kingly majesty which belongs to him as supreme ruler

-majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity

Luke 14:10

AS WORSHIP TO GOD

doxa

majesty

a thing belonging to God, to Christ

-concerning one, resulting in praise, honor, and glory

-the kingly majesty which belongs to him as supreme ruler

-majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity

It is literally like a puppy licking the master’s hand.

What does a little puppy do when it sees it’s master? It wags its tail, runs to him and just looks at him with adoration and he licks the master’s hand. All of the puppy gets involved - his tail which shows his heart, his feet which involves his body and his adoration, which includes all of him.

At first this offended me but then I found we need to worship God with all of our heart, mind, soul and body. We show this same adoration when:

~ Our heart is glad when we sense God’s nearness

~ Our mind acknowledges that He is the Almighty, Holy God

~ Our soul magnifies the Lord

~ We outwardly respond as we sing, pray, praise, bow, study, preach…….

Jesus taught us that worship is more than what we do……it is what we are ….. the outward ways we worship should reflect the attitude of worship in our hearts.