5 W's of Worship
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever had a moment when you did something that you never fully understood right away? How did it make you feel when you finally learned the reason for it?
I think sometimes we can look at Praise Nights and even the Bible that way. We can come out here, have an amazing time together, but do we even know the reason we’re here doing this?
I want to read you some ancient poetry written by an Israelite person thousands of years ago. This poem part of many in a collection of what we call the Psalms. This Psalm I’m about to read to you is actually the last Psalm in the collection. This is how it all finishes. (SLIDE 1)
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Have you ever thought about what Praise means?
Have you ever wondered if you’re doing Praise right?
Have you ever wondered why we Praise?
Have you ever wondered if you’re allowed to Praise?
Now you may have not noticed, but this poem actually gives us a step by step of what to do! This Psalm contains a Who, What, Where, When, Why and How to Praise the Lord!
Let’s go over it and discover what God wants to tell us here together!
What do we do?
Praise the Lord, to proclaim the Lord’s goodness, go give Him glory.
When do we do it?
In His Sanctuary. The early Church leader Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthian people that WE are the temple or sanctuary of God. God resides within us. So when can we Praise the Lord? ANYTIME!
Where do we do it?
In His mighty heavens! (All of Creation!) His mighty heavens means “the vast and powerful expanse of the sky and the universe, often used to emphasize God's omnipresence, sovereignty, and the awe-inspiriing nature of His creation” This means all of Creation! AKA any and everywhere!
Why?
For His acts of Power, for His Surpassing Greatness. We say that God is worthy of our praise.
How?
Trumpet, Harp, Tamborine, Dancing, Strings, Pipe, Cymbals… Praise Him with anything and everything you got!
Who?
Everything that has Breath! EVERYONE!
But what if I’m going through a really bad time? What if I can’t find a way to praise the Lord?
That’s a good and fair question. Many characters in the Bible go through times of immense suffering and pain as well. But this goes back to the “Why”. We don’t praise God just when things are going well. I understand that sounds weird. I didn’t understand that until a couple of years ago. Much like the question I asked earlier about something you’ve done which you don’t understand, I didn’t understand praising God because I would look at Him like, “God, how can I praise you? My life sucks. Things cost too much, I have no free time, I get blamed for things I didn’t do, I tried my best to work hard only to fall short and get called a failure.” But that’s because I didn’t understand the What or the Why.
I thought that Praise was about me worshipping God for His immediate Goodness in my life. My understanding was that Praise was a response to His provision. Although that is a little true, it’s not all true.
Praise is declaring the Goodness of God. Praise is not about you. It’s about the same God who moved in power in history, the same God who healed, the same God who saved, the same God who transformed, the same God who provided, the same God who empowered the hopeless, the fearful and dejected souls … is the same God today. Praise isn’t a reaction to good. We learned a few weeks ago that reaction is a wasted response. Praise is something we do in the good times and the bad because we are singing to a God who WILL provide, WILL transform, WILL save, and WILL bring hope.
So maybe you’re here and you were like me, not fully knowing what Praise is and was. I want to give you a chance to praise in both the good and bad. Maybe you need prayer or maybe you see someone around you who needs prayer, please pray with each other. I want to give you an opportunity to really press in and respond with a proper understanding of what praise is. We’ll also have prayer leaders at the back as well if you would like prayer. Or maybe you want to try praising with everything you got, not because it’s about you, but about the God you follow.
