Worship Is A Verb Part 1
Scripture: Psalm 34:1; 51:14-17; Hebrews 13:15
Introduction:
Many years ago when I was elementary school, we learned to diagram sentences. I am not sure if they still do that today, but when I was in school we had to and I hated it. The first thing you had to know in order to diagram a sentence was the difference between a noun and a verb. A noun is a word that denotes a person, place or thing. (Are you starting to have flashbacks yet?) A verb is a word that expresses an action, existence or occurrence. So to diagram a sentence, you had to know the basic differences between a noun and a verb. There were a whole lot of other things you had to know but since they are not necessary for this message, I will not take you through them which make life much easier for me. When I diagrammed sentences in school, there were times when I got confused on some words that I thought were nouns but were actually verbs. The teacher had to explain to me why I was wrong which sometimes I accepted her answer and other times I said “okay” while thinking the teacher was wrong and I was right. Well this morning is one of those times. You see, we treat the term “worship” as if it were a noun when it is actually a verb. This series of messages for the next few weeks will focus on worship being a verb and not a noun.
Worship is defined as “a service or rite showing reverence for a deity; intense love or admiration; a title of honor.” In the first two definitions it clearly demonstrates that worship is an action and that will be my focus. So let us take a step through the doors of the average Church where Christians go to “worship”.
I. Going to Worship Service
On any given Sunday morning or evening, you will find masses of people going to Church; going to a “worship” service. They get up, get dressed and head to Church. When they walk into the building, they know what to expect. They know there will be some form of opening comments, followed by some music, a sermon, an offering and finally a benediction. The services are so routine that the people go on auto pilot as soon as they walk in. There is not real expectation of God moving within the service and very little worship of God actually takes place. I know some of you may be wondering how I can make this statement that very little worship of God happens in many Church services, but just hang with me and you will begin to understand. Remember what I said earlier, worship is a verb meaning that it is an action. To worship God means you are doing something, you are taking an action. Now I would agree that you getting up in the morning and actually coming to Church is an action, but that is not worship. Although you took an action to get to Church, that does not qualify as worshipping God. The average person comes into the doors of the Church expecting to be served. They expect a sermon; they expect the choir to sing a few songs; they expect an offering to be taken up and they expect that the benediction will be right on time. All of these things are needed within a Church, but they do not necessarily represent worship. Worship is what we do to God.
We have a format that we follow in our Church services that you are all familiar with, but not everything that we do is “worship”. For example, the reading or announcements is not “worship” but the way we take up our offering could be. The deliverance of the sermon is not worship although it’s purpose is to “over time” help everyone come to the point of desiring to worship God. Our altar call may or may not be worship depending on its purpose. For example, if the prayer is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving only, then it can be considered worship. If the prayer is focused on our asking God for something for ourselves or for someone else, then it is probably not worship. You see, when we use the term worship, it is about something that we are doing to God, not “for” God. I do not come to Church for God, I come to worship God. So if the average member comes to Church and just participate in the flow of the program, can that be considered “worship”? I do not believe so in its truest terms. Worship is personal and must be individualized. Although we have a corporate service (meaning we are all together) our worship of God is individualized based on what we do at any given moment.
So you may be wondering if we do anything that comes close to worship and I can tell you that we do. Our praise service is the closest thing that we do that is a form of worship. Although we have a praise team that is leading the praise service, you have the opportunity during this time praise God in your own way and make it very personal. If you are just standing there and singing whatever the praise leaders are singing and going through the motions, then you are not really praising God, you are just participating in the praise while your mind is somewhere else. But if you are engaged in the praise service while you are reflecting of God’s goodness and you begin to get your own praise on, then you have entered into worship.
In his book “The Dynamics of Corporate Worship”, (page 20-21) author Vernon Whaley quotes Charles Ryrie and A.W. Tozer as to what worship is. He gives the following quotes:
Charles C. Ryrie: “The worship of the Church, then, consists of individual, corporate, public, and private service for the Lord which is generated by a reverence for and submission to Him who is totally worthy.”
A.W. Tozer: “Worship is to feel in the heart….real worship is, among other things, a feeling about the Lord our God…if we are led by His Holy Spirit, our worship will always bring a delighted sense of admiring awe and a sincere humility on our part.”
Let’s examine a few biblical examples of worship.
II. Real Worship Begins In The Heart
Real worship of God starts in the heart of every individual, not when the person comes to the Church house. The worship that should be taking place in the Church should be an extension of the worship that is already taking place in a person’s heart. If you as individuals are not worshipping God at home, it will be extremely difficult for you to come here and all of a sudden start worshipping Him. Worship is an individual action that a person does and then becomes a corporate action when a group of people get together and begins to join their “individual” worship into one large group of worshippers who continue their worship individually. Let me use this example. I am involved in my own praise and worship of God at home, on my job, in my car, at the store, wherever I am located, I can be found to worship and praise God. Now when I come to a place of worship, all I am doing is continuing my own personal worship in a public place. When I lift my hands to God, it is not because someone told me to, but because I am reflecting on what God is doing in my life. When tears flow from my eyes during my praise and worship, it is not because I looked over and saw someone else crying or heard someone else’s testimony, it is because I am reflecting on what God has done for me. You see, all of these things that take place in a Church should remind you of how good God has been to you. The praise songs should take your mind to a place where you remember what God has done in your life. The testimonies should take your mind to a place where you remember examples of when God has done something similar for you. This is the starting point. Once we understand this, then we can start praising God for what He is doing in the lives of others. So how do we get to this place? Let’s see what David had to say about this. Turn to Psalms 51:14-17. “Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
You all know the story of David and Bathsheba and how he committed a grave sin against God with her. When the prophet Nathan called David out on what he had done and shared with him God’s displeasure, David did not try to justify his actions; he did not try to rationalize it away because he was the king; he repented and cried out to God. The term that David uses “broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart” are terms that describe a humble heart that looks to God in the time of trouble and pleads for mercy. You see, it is very difficult for a lot of people to say “I’m sorry”. For some it is because they are ashamed and if they say those words it makes it worse. For others they rationalize their actions so that they do not feel like they need to say the words. Still others hearts are so hardened they really are never sorry for the actions that they do. To begin to enter into real worship of God, we must have hearts that are humble; hearts that recognize what God has done for us. So back to my earlier point, if we as individuals are not worshipping God privately, it will be nearly impossible to do it publicly at a Church because worship is a private action even when done in public.
III. Real Worship Must Be Practiced
Real worship must be practiced. Now I know some of you are wondering about this, but let me explain. One of the definitions of practice is this: “to do or engage in frequently.” Have you ever heard someone say the more you do something the easier it gets? That’s practice. I said earlier that real worship begins in the heart and is something that we should be doing everyday, everywhere. When you are worshipping God privately, it does not take much for you to do it in public in your own way – I will talk more about this is a later message. But to perfect worship, you must practice it. When you see the praise team and the choirs stand up before you, you do not realize that they must practice first. They practice in order to get it right, to work out the kinks. When they have gotten the songs to a point where they are comfortable that they’re ready, then they bring them before us. Imagine what they would sound like if they did not practice. No one would know their parts and they could never sing any new songs because how would they learn them? The same applies to worship. Worship takes practice and that practice takes place when you are along with God giving Him the praise for everything He has done for you. This starts simply by saying “thank you”. David said in Psalm 34:1 “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” He did not say when he is at a worship service only, he said at all times. At all times means when we’re at home; in the shower; at the job; on the golf course; on the basketball court; in the car; walking the dog; at all times. When you engage in praise and worship of God at all times, doing it at Church is easy. Paul said this: “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” (Hebrews 13:15) The key word here is “continually” which also carries the idea of “at all times”. Again we should continually be offering up praise to God. When we are giving God praise, we are entering into worship.
When you go into any Church and look around at the audience during any part of the “worship” service, you will witness people talking, sleeping, writing notes, sending text messages on their phones, looking at the watches to see how much time is left; just standing and barely participating during praise, looking around during the prayer time and I could go on and on. The reason that these things exists within the Church is because we are not participating in praise and worship during our private time. You cannot perform any tasks well unless it is practiced continually. There are many Christians who go to Church as a part of a routine, what they are supposed to do on Sunday. They do not go to Church so that they can take their private worship of God to a place where they can worship Him with others who also have been spending time with God in worship. They do not come to Church expecting the feel the love of God engulf them as they reach out to Him. Imagine what God could do with our worship service if all of us practiced worship at home and then came here to share our worship and be engulfed by the Spirit of God in love. When this actually happens, we will be sorry when the services end and we will leave with a glow. We have not as a corporate body entered into real worship and that will be my focus for 2009 and in this series of messages. I will continue next week. May God bless you real good!
