The Glory of the Church Series
Worship to God!
Think back in your mind and find a time when you were especially drawn into a worship experience. Was it at a retreat or church camp? In a college setting? Indoors our outdoors? All of these setting (and many more) provide a venue where worship can take place but something has to occur within an individual before true worship is present.
For me, it wasn’t until I had left home and began worshipping on a daily basis through devotionals at a Christian Student Center that I deeply sensed what I participated in for 18 years earlier. I made God, Christ, Christ, and faith my own! It wasn’t that those externals weren’t present many, many times in my past. It was simply that I had begun to personally approach God on my own.
It is not easy to put a definition of worship into words, so vast is the concept of worship. No definition seems adequate.
1. Worship is the adoring reverence of the human spirit for the divine.
2. Worship is man’s response to God’s revelation of himself.
3. Worship is the outgoing of the human spirit toward God, recognizing in Him the source of all life and love and goodness and holiness and righteousness.
4. To worship is to feed the mind on the truths of God, to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to cleanse the conscience with the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.
Key verses for our study
Jesus set the pattern for his people in rejecting any object of worship other than God.
Matthew 4:10: "Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."
He taught the proper manner of worshipping God:
John 4:23-24: "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. {24} God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.""
The emphasis was no longer to be where but how. The primary concern was to be the worship of God in spirit and in truth.
1 Corinthians 14:15: "So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind."
In spirit (genuine feeling and sincere dedication) and in truth (according to God’s word and with understanding of what God wants us to do in worship).
Isaiah 6:1-9 and Revelation 4:11:
(Isaiah 6:1-9 NIV) "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. {2} Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. {3} And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." {4} At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. {5} "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." {6} Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. {7} With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." {8} Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" {9} He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'"
(Revelation 4:11 NIV) ""You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.""
- Jehovah God: high and lifted up.
- The sinfulness of man.
- Cleansed and made holy.
- For what purpose?
Elderly woman who had been in worship and met late comer "Is the sermon done?" Reply: "The sermon has been preached, but it remains to be done."
Primary functions which worship serves.
1. Glorification of God.
(Psalms 19:1-4 NIV) "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. {2} Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. {3} There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. {4} Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,"
(Ephesians 1:6 NIV) "to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
(Ephesians 1:12 NIV) "in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory."
(Ephesians 1:14 NIV) "who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory."
2. Satisfaction of the basic needs of man.
a. Man’s desire to identify with something greater than self. Augustine: "Our souls are never at rest until they find rest in Thee." Anonymous writer: "Religion is the first thing and the last thing and until a man has found God and been found by God, he begins at no beginning, he works to no end. He may have friendships, his partial loyalties, his scraps of honor. But all these things fall into place and life falls into place only with God. We exist for God."
b. Man’s desire to express gratitude and love. Until we can do this before God (also important toward others) our lives are out of adjustment!
c. Man’s desire for something to sooth and calm his troubled spirit. Our world has become more and more complex. There is more stress upon our generation than ever before; ours is an age of tranquilizers, psychiatrists, and mental hospitals. Worship is a refuge time of sorrow and troubles! (Thanks to Gary Nix last Sunday night for praying that exact sentiment as we dismissed).
(Philippians 4:6-7 NIV) "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. {7} And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
d. Man’s desire for security and safety. We live in a precarious world…a world of earthquakes, hurricanes, famines, tornadoes, and illnesses (short list…don’t remind us, huh?). We need the security and safety of a loving Father and a church family that cares for us…we feel and need this presence and strength as we worship together.
Last modified:
July 10, 2008