Corporate Worship

Introduction

We have reached the end of our series of moving beyond motions. a serires focused on going deeper with God. Today we are focusing on corporate worship as our final discipline. and I want to start by saying that I almost got it wrong. As I begun my study and mediating on this topic this week, I struggled with forming a message on what corporate worship is and why its important. I enjoy worship, it is one of my favotite forms of discpline and I made the assumption that this would be too obvious of a message because we know what worship is right? So yesterday, I was going over my notes, listening and meditating when I realized I got it wrong. I was prepping a message surrounding on this idea that worship was the time we spend singing songs to God, about him. I was so focused on that idea that I was forgetting that worship is more than that. We do worship God thorugh songs, but there is more to worship than that and we would be depriving ourselves of a deeper experince if we limited our understanding to JUST that.

So new sermon I wrote!

Let’s start with a worsking definiton. There is alot to unpact on this practice but for today I want to share a messae on worship as this “The practice of expressing praise, thanksgiving, adoration, etc. to a deity or perhaps to a regent.” and since we are talking about God, I will describe worship as “The practice of expressing praise, thanksgiving, adoration, etc. to God. because the truth is, we worship alot of people and alot of things, and often times those things or people take the place of God which is idolatry. But that’s for another day and another message. Today I just wat to share two main points on Corporate worship and its importance.

PRAY

Worship as Adoration; Thanksgiving and praise

When talking about worship, scripture is full of what it means. what I find to be the bases or the foundation of the meaning of worship, is an expression of adoration toward God.

Psalm 100:1 “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.”

Psalm 95:1 “O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!”

Psalm 108:1 “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul!”

To the people of Israel. there was a way in which they would praise and worship God. Rather that’s through the burning of incense, a certain postrate of position or the lifting of one’s hands. There was a way to express adoration to God.

Praise and Adoration

this is where we get our idea of praise and worship thorugh singing. this is where I was stuck on this message for a few dayswithin each one of these text, isn’t a desire to know about God, rather a desire to KNOW God as your own. There was something far more deeper about their expression though. take david for example, listen to how deep his expression was

Psalm 63 “A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword, they shall be prey for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.”

H

There is a game called

ThereI could sing of your love. Forever

Your fragrance is intoxicating in a secret place

Lay back against You and breathe, feel Your heart beat / This love is so deep, it's more than I can stand..

And I... I'm desparate for you And I... I'm lost without you

these are just a few songs that often gets criticized due to the language being too literal or emotional. Some would argue it domesticates God and makes the worship feel inappropriately romantic. I am like that too. Having a hard time fighting thoughts like, “I can’t focus with this Jesus is my boyfriend music”. What I fail to see is the way it reflects the biblical model of deep, passionate spiritual devotion.

David expressed himself this way and was known to be a man after God’s own heart

But the praise doesn’t just stop there. We adore God, we praise and worship Him for a purpose. What do I mean by that?

2. Thanksgiving

Psalm 100 “A Psalm of thanksgiving. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

this Psalmsist gives us a few reason

He created us. not just us but everything and it was FOR us

we belong to God. we are His. we have pupose. He sees us, just ask Hagar. He knows us, just ask David. We don’t serve an image of something or a representaiton of someone. We don’t serve something that is far beyond and between us. We serve a BEING that desires to be WITH us. The language of sons and daughters, reflect the actual owness God puts on Himself with us. He looks at you and call you son. He looks at you and calls you daughter.

We are his sheep; he shepherd us. he didnt just dump us in this world to try to figure it out. He is with is, to guide us in every way. Every other religion talks about all these things you have to do to even reach this “enlightment”. Jesus takes that, flips it over its head and says I have already done it, new life starts with me now and I will out my spirit in you to guide you

and because of these things, The psalmist says, enter God’s gates with thanksgiving. keep these things in mind, rejoice and praise God for it. We should be people of testomny, giving God his due praise for what he has done in our lives. That’s part of the struggle, i don’t think we think much about what God has done for us. This bible, is full of testomnies of what God can and will do for you. but how often are you reflecting on the wonders he has and is doing?

3. Blessing

When we worship God, we bless His name. what do i mean by that?

The Hebrew word for "blessing" is barukh (related to barak "to kneel/bless"). When God blesses people, he is giving them good things, life, and abundance—it's an effective act that brings about what he says.

When humans "bless the Lord" (as in Psalm 103:1, "Bless the Lord, O my soul..."), it's understood differently:

Proclaiming his inherent goodness: Since God is the source of all blessing and needs nothing from us, a human blessing is not an act of bestowing or giving him goodness he lacks.

A verbal act of acknowledgment and praise: To "bless the Lord" means to verbally acknowledge, praise, and thank him for his character and his works—especially the good things he has given us.

An act of declaration: It is an act of declaring his greatness and goodness, particularly in response to the blessings he has first given to us.

We live in such a time where God’s name is beng mocked because His people have forgetten how good He is. When we worship, we testify to his chracter and nature. we shine our light so others may see and be drawn to him. Worship isn’t about singing songs on sundays or sometime in the car. it’s an everyday expression of adoration toward God, with praise and adoration, with thankgiving in our hearts for what he has done and to bless His name.

when i consider all of this, i struggle with worship. i can’t say i have a heart like david or have expressed my desire this kind of way; its foreign to me. truth is it isn’t. if someone was to come to me and promise 50 more years of my life, added to hoever i would live, and the only catch is i would lose all knowldge and memory of Sam, Lorelai, Evalyn and Adeline. I would easily reject it. why? because I love them more than life itself

God offers that kind of love. in fact, he freely gives it. how do we respond?

Worship as holliness living

The reason i said i almost missed with this sermon, has to do with this second part. It’s not enough to just worship and adore God. True worship, the way David worshipped, lead to a change. In knowing God as our own, we live our worship as holy living

Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Worship is a daily practice, not limited to song. It’s a pursuit. not that we have to do anything to get it but that we long to obtain it. long to be with Him and experience it. Apostle paul called this time of living as “your true act of worship”.

This entire series is about holy living. about moving from the mundane, feeling stuck, and going deeper. You can’t experience that without carving space out for God everyday. These practices won’t get you there, its not a checklist. They are however, invitiaons we give to God to open us up and exmine us to do work in us through and for Himself.

The early church in Acts understood it and Paul encouraged them to not get out of the habit of it

being devoted to one another

meeting

breaking bread

praying

all of those things are apart of our corporate worship together. I need you and you need me. We can’t do it alone. If there is one thing COVID taught us is that we were made for comunity. Yeah i can listen to worship music by myself and read or listen to a sermon. But there’s nothing like being with my brothers and sisters in christ, worshipping God together. it takes me in deeper experiences when I worship with others. 1 Corinthians 14:26 “What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” Corporate worship builds us up. Early in the chapter, Paul says to pursue these good gifts so you may prosper and by prosper, mean you edify and build up the church.

Church isn’t about you or for you. It’s not about the songs you get to sing or hear. Spurgeon said it best “Spiritual self indulgence is a monstrous evil; yet we see it all around. On Sunday these loafers must be well fed. They look out for such sermons as will feed their souls. The thought does not occur to these people that there is something else to be done besides feeding.”

The goal of coming together as a church is not to be entertained, nor even to be “pleased” with a “blessing.” We gather for edification, for the spiritual building up we need to live lives that glorify Jesus Christ outside the walls of the church. As Paul said in Ephesians 4:12, the goal is the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Our Christian lives are lived on the outside, and we come to be strengthened, built up, and equipped when we come together as a church family. THIS IS TRUE CORPORATE WORSHIP. and this daily sacrifical living as an act of true worship.