What is Worship?

Introduction

If we haven’t met My name is Alec, i am the worship/Creative arts Pastor here at Anthem

I have an amazing wife Hannah, and three beautiful Children, Juniper, Davy, and Eden

I have been in the church my whole life, My Father has been a Pastor my whole lif, and have personally been in active ministry for over 11 years.

was a youth pastor for 2 years, so speaking is not foreign to me

(Set-Up)

I was placed on the speaking rotation and I had asked Chris If I could speak on Worship. the topic for today has been on my heart for a while so I am very excited for today and pray that God would speak to us this morning

Today we are talking about “What is Worship” and to do that I believe we need to talk through several different Ideas but the main will be What is worship, How we Worship, and Our Mandate to do so. I’m also very excited because I believe God has put it on my heart to tackle this from a different angle than maybe you are used to.

Being in the church for a long time I have heard many Sermons on the topic of worship, and most usually find scripture that elevates musical worship and praising God with Joy as a response to the Joy of our Salvation. And I could do that today,m one of my favorite verses is

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

In Honesty sometimes I feel like these types of Sermons are used as a way for the worship Pastor to be like “wHy DOnt yOu gUyS SinG wItH mE”

and that is not my goal, I’m gonna punch way harder that that

Religion vs Relationship

I’ve heard it a million times. “It’s all about Relationship, not Religion”. And while I understand the sentiment, and even sympathize a little, I think its misguided thinking.

For the fun of it lets go down the path of relationship. “its all about relationship” ok a relationship with who? The God of the universe.

Thats a heavy thing to say

this phrase used to dismiss a “perceived” opposite doesn’t carry that much weight.

the Hebrew word for Glory is “Kabad” it means weight.

We live in an era where Jesus is seen more like a life coach than he is your lord and Saviour.

so you’re in a relationship, if I am going to strong man this position lets go a step further and say “healthy relationship” the interesting thing about living today is We are constantly flooded with personality quizes, Eneagrams, DISC assesments, Love Languages, astrological signs, spirit animals right??

and whats the goal?

to better understand how to treat each other/understand each other.

My Wife has Preferences on how to be loved. If I express love to her in those ways they have increased value. If I show her love the way that “I” feel love there will be a disconnect.

Why?

If I want to love to someone, its not about me

If I want to show love to someone, I should learn “How” they feel loved.

God has preferences

“I might not be able to know God exhaustively, but I can know him accurately” - Nathan Finochio

All of christian worship is based off of discovering who God is based on his own revelation, not projecting onto him

If you’re taking notes

1 Peter 2:5 “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

God Revealed

There is a fundamental principal when it comes to studying scripture we get from Jesus and the NT authors, that the OT forshadows the NT. Meaning the principals we learn from the OT are fully revealed by the NT. Jesus talks about revealing the “mysteries” of the scriptures. Meaning there were truths buried underneath the surface of the OT.

Practically we see teachings in the OT that shout through to the NT

and we see the NT appealing/ bringing greater clarity to OT teachings

For example we learn from Jesus that King David Spoke Prophetically. He said things that HE didnt even know what the greater meaning was until Jesus appealed to his writings and spoke throughout time what it actually meant!

Psalm 141 “A Psalm of David. O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

This Song is from David’s time in the wilderness

David Loved to worship God

there are 150 Psalms and David alone wrote half of them