The Church: A Community of Worship - 6/30/02
Worship – comes from the old English word for worth, it means to recognize something’s worth. Our worship begins with an experience of God’s presence and recognizing God’s worth, especially in relation to ourselves. Isaiah’s experience.
Worship is one of the most important activities in the life of the church. Our worship here is practice for when we get to heaven, where we will experience God’s presence forever.
Worship is first an attitude and then an activity – begins before we get to the sanctuary, what we get out of worship depends on what we bring to worship. If we have not come to be in God’s presence, if we do not open ourselves to God’s presence, our worship will be only outward ritual.
Devotion
Respect and submission
Adoration
The world can be saved by one thing and that is worship. For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.—William Temple
Can you imagine someone sending this note to his love: “I would climb the highest mountain for you. I would swim the widest river for you. I would crawl across burning sands of the desert for you.” Then he put a P.S. at the end: “If it doesn’t rain Wednesday night I will be over to see you.”
Our attitude of worship is expressed by our actions in worship
As Christians, our worship is directed toward God as revealed in the Scripture and in Jesus Christ.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - The gods we worship write their names on our faces, be sure of that. And a man will worship something —have no doubt about that, either. He may think that his tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of his heart—but it will out. That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.
There are many possible acts of worship.
Worship God only
Deuteronomy 4:19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
Deut 5:7 "You shall have no other gods before me. 8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Worship in spirit and truth
John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Bowing down
Psalm 5:7 But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple.
2Chr 20:18 (NIV) Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD.
Kneeling
1Kin 8:54 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.
Ephe 3:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
Being still
Psal 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
Dancing
Exodus 15:20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.
Psalm 149:1-3 Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. 2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. 3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.
Clapping hands
Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
Lifting hands
Psalm 134:1 Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord. 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.
1 Timothy 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
Joyful singing
Psal 100:2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Bringing offerings
1Chr 16:29 ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.