One of my favorite songs is entitled “Heart of Worship.” The Lyrics of the song imply that we have gotten away from worshiping God and let other things replace our worship with things that are less important. Many of God’s people have let the pandemic dampen their desire to Worship God. With the beginning of the New Year and the expectation of putting an end to that which separates us from worshiping God and the mandate of worshiping together. “Now is the Time” to come back to what is important to all who love God. God’s sent Jesus, His Son that we would no longer be separated from Him by the sin in our lives. What is keeping you from worshiping God?
Worship can be defined as “the reverence or adoration that one shows toward something or someone; holding a person or object in high esteem; or giving a person or an object a place of importance or honor.” There are hundreds of scriptures in the Bible that speak about worship and provide guidance as to both who and how to worship. (What Exactly is Worship? (biblestudytools.com)
In the realm of Christianity today the buzz word is worship. There is a lot to be said about “Worship.” The act of worship is more than just praise and worship songs. The act of worship is not limited to a single day but to an entire lifetime. Worship becomes more focused as we gather together as the body of Christ, the Church. Yet worship for the Christian believer worship should be a daily part of our Christian life. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:21 that worship was not limited to the mountain where they were or in Jerusalem, we were to worship God in spirit and truth.
(Read Sermon Text) John 4:21-24
21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." NKJV
True Spritual Worship
Today we see the various types of worship. The word “denomination” seems to impose the various types of worship limitations or expectations in our Churches today. There are those who believe that they have a special focus on worship just like the woman at the well. She apparently believed that the worship of God was limited to a specific local. But true worship of God can’t be limited to a geographical location or group of people or any other category. Worship is lot limited to the denomination, or education or location.
ILLUSTRATION: Worship-Isaac Watts wrote fifty-two books, twenty-nine of them on theology. But he is best remembered for his hymns. He wrote more than seven hundred, and even today the average modern hymnal will have twenty or more of his songs--276 years after they were written. When he died, he was reciting one of his favorites: "I’ll Praise My Maker While I Breathe." (James Cox, The Minister’s Manual, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 328.)(Copied from Sermon Central)
There are two questions we need to search for the answer. What is worship and what does it involve? Many believe that worship is just sing praise songs and lifting hands and hearts to God. But that is only one part of what true worship is. As believers we are to worship God with everything with-in, with-out and around us. The word of God uses the word worship 105 times in 112 verses in the Bible.
The first reference to the Worship of God is in Genesis 22:5 when Abraham takes his son Isaac at the direction of God to the mountain to offer Isaac up to God as a sacrifice to test Abrahams commitment and obedience to God. God’s intention was not for Isaac to be sacrifice but to see if commitment to Him was complete or on equal to what God had given him. Worship is a way to express our total commitment to God. Let’s us consider what it means to worship God in spirit and truth.
ILLUSTRATION: Authentic Worship-In his article ’Celebrating God in Authentic Worship’, pastor Glenn Wagner (Calvary Church, Charlotte, NC) points out: "I believe that one of the most evangelistic tools the church possesses, one desperately needed today, is authentic worship. People want to know, first, if God exists; then second, can they relate to Him? If God exists, is it possible to connect with Him in a vibrant, dynamic way? In genuine, authentic worship, observers see real people connecting powerfully with the real God."
"Unfortunately, the current seeker-sensitive model - at least as many churches have practiced it - has led to a weak and anemic view of worship and prayer. That has led to weak and anemic relationships, both with God and with other believers. But the situation does not have to remain unchanged."
"The outflow of a focus on God, a submission to the real Jesus, and an emphasis on ever-deepening relationships is an energetic, joyful, Spirit-filled, congregational worship of the triune God. Genuine celebration erupts when God’s people discover who they are in Christ. And powerful prayer arises from the hearts of those who have truly entered the presence of God." (Preaching Now Newsletter, June 25, 2002, Copied from Sermon Central)
1. Worship is directed toward God-
Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HIM ONLY YOU SHALL SERVE.' "
Revelation 4:11 we read that God is worthy of our honor and praise. First, we must understand and acknowledge that God is our creator and without Him there would be nothing. God created it all including His crowning creation man. When we look at this world in which we live we see the beauty of all God created, the earth and all its beauty only begin to illuminate the glory of God and all He has created. What ever form of worship we chose it be directed toward God and none other. Worship is not for us, but it puts God at the very center stage of all we are in Christ Jesus.
Exodus 34:5-9 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, "If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance." NKJV
Psalms 108:3-5 I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples,
And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
4 For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
And Your glory above all the earth; NKJV
Psalms 111:9
9 He has sent redemption to His people;
He has commanded His covenant forever:
Holy and awesome is His name. NKJV
Psalms 148:13-14
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
14 And He has exalted the horn of His people,
The praise of all His saints —
Of the children of Israel,
A people near to Him.
Praise the Lord! NKJV
Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested." NKJV
2. Worship puts at God our center point-
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
It goes without saying that our central focus of worship should be God. Not our needs, wants or desires. We don’t worship for what we receive but for all that we can envision of God as creator. As we consider the names of God in the His Word it provides us with a discription of God’s nature. God is our creator “Elohim”, He is the Living God “Elohim Chayim”, He is our heavenly Father “Abba” and He is our provider “Jehovah-jireh.” As part of you worship of God you may want to spend some time studying the names of God and their meanings.
3. Worship emphasizes the Gospel-
1Co 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1 Peter 2:24-25 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. –
We have the Gospel that provides us a way to get to know God and His Son. The central theme of the Gospel is God’s love for us and the sending of His Son to redeem us from the penalty of sin. We have been bought with the price the blood of Jesus which pay for our sin. As we read of the things in the life of Jesus, we see the heart of who God is. His power, authority, His strength, and His love for us. Jesus is pictured as the shepherd who cares for His sheep and is and was willing to sacrifice his life for just one of his lost sheep but died for all.
4. Worship God in Spirit and Truth-
2Thesloains 2:10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Worship is not entertainment for the masses but it to bring to bare all our focus as much as humanly possible the attributes of God our Creator. It is true we should use whole being to spotlight God and recognize His love and devotion to us.
ILLUSTRATION: Worship ought not to be construed in a useful or practical way. Its purpose is not to gain numbers nor for our churches to be successful. Rather, the entire reason for our worship is that God deserves it. Moreover, it isn’t even useful for earning points with God, for what we do in worship won’t change one bit how God feels about us. We will always still be helpless sinners caught in our endless inability to be what we should be or to make ourselves better--and God will always still be merciful, compassionate, and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and ready to forgive us as we come to him. (--Marva Dawn, A Royal Waste of Time)(Sermon Central)
5. Worship expresses God’s value to us-
Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.
That which we value the most we spend our lives focusing on. Worship comes from a heart that has experienced the new birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus “you must be born again.” When we hold a person, a place or even a thing mor highly in our heart it becomes more important to us. The more we express or direct our worship toward God we place a greater importance for Him in our lives. In Exodus 34:14 God commands to us to have “no other God,” anything that consumes our time to the point of not having time to worship God through prayer, Bible reading and study and attending worship services becomes our god.
ILLUSTRATION: Why Worship? By Darren Ethier
We need to let go of our intellectual idea of worship and realize there is more to worship than a sermon; we must let go of our evangelistic notion of worship and reckon with the fact that worship is not primarily directed toward the sinners who need to be converted; we must let go of our entertainment expectations and remind ourselves that we are not in church to watch a Christian variety show. We have gathered in worship to be met by God the Almighty. God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who sustains our lives, our Redeemer and King, is present through proclamation and remembrance. He wants to communicate to us, to penetrate our inner self, to take up residence within us. And, as we go through the experience of meeting with him in this mystical moment of public worship, we are to respond. But response is not just singing a hymn, not just saying a creed, not just saying a prayer. Response, from the very beginning of worship to the end, must be a powerful inner experience of being in the presence of God. When we sing a hymn or say a confession or prayer, we are not singing or saying words, but expressing a feeling, bringing our souls, truly responding, and communicating to the living and active presence of a loving and merciful God. (SOURCE: Robert Webber. Worship Is a Verb : Eight Principles for Transforming Worship. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1998. pg 114. Copied from Sermon Central)
6. Worship should be with our whole being
Mark 12:30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' This is the first commandment.
Psa 146:1 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
Psa 146:2 While I live I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Our “worship” services have become more like funerals, than celebrations of new life. Our worship of God should be joyful and exuberant expressions of our love for God and all He is to us. When other see the joy that comes from knowing and worshiping God it creates a desire in other to find and acquire what we have as Christians have found in Jesus. Joyful expression of worshiping God is scriptural, joyful expressions of worship encourages others, and joyful expression for worship encourages our own hearts.
Psa 108:1-5 A Song. A Psalm of David. O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. 2 Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn.3 I will praise You, O LORD, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations. 4 For Your mercy is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the clouds. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth;
Jesus said that true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Our worship comes from the heart and should reflect magnitude of all God means to us. Worship can include praying, reading God's Word with an open heart, singing, playing and instrument, participating in communion, and serving others. It is not limited to one act but is done properly when the heart and attitude of the person are in the right place. It's also important to know that worship is reserved only for God. Worship should be balanced to let the world see and know how God and His love permanents our whole being. (http://www.gotquestions.org/true-worship.html:)
7. Worship is not just for a day, but for our daily lives-
Paul writes in Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Worship is not limited to one day a week; we are to worship God 365 days a year. From sun-up to sun-up we are to worship God by presenting to God our whole selves. Worshiping God by living for Him each day, reading, and studying His Word and letting people we meet see the joy of our salvation.
Paul takes an Ole Testament language of sacrifice to God and applying to the New Testament Church. The Old Testament sacrifices required the death of the sacrifice, but Paul writes that our worship sacrifice should be alive. Presenting our living bodies which is Holy and Acceptable to God. Our living sacrifice is not limited to a time frame but to a lifetime for all the world to see. Our lives are not be shaped by the world but by God and His Son. We often thing about worship in giving our hearts to God but Paul expands that thought to giving our whole bodies and not just one set time but continually. Worship is more than singing, praising, and lifting hands its true worship involves ever aspect of our lives.
ILLUSTRATION: Author Douglas J. Moo: "Worship is not merely, or even mainly, what we do on Sunday morning. Worship is a 24/7 matter. We worship God when we give ourselves to him in service. We worship God when we show love to others, when we do our jobs faithfully and with integrity, when we play with our kids and nurture our families. God wants us always to be bringing glory to him by the way we live."
Our knowledge of Christ and our relationship to Him and with Him is attractive, so much so that others are drawn to the mysterious, they are drawn to that "something about you" which haunts their thoughts and wet’s their appetite for what you possess. As we go about our daily lives with its demands and challenges and in the process of life demonstrate joy and peace; when we respond to humanities pain and needs around us, a fragrance is released. People wonder, "What was that? Why did you do that? Why do you care what happens to me?" The fragrance of the knowledge of Christ is released and lives are touched and changed.
It is in these moments we become living and holy sacrifices; in these moments, we WORSHIP.
