Worship as a Spiritual Discipline

Our Theme for 2020 is “Seeing Spiritually.”

We are beginning this year with a series on Spiritual Disciplines.

We talked about seeking the Lord in Silence and Solitude.

We talked last week about prayer and fasting as a means of aligning ourselves with God.

This week is about worship, but not just about singing and praising God.

Worship is part of alignment.

Worship is bringing our focus back on to God.

When life happens and your attention is mostly on yourself and on your circumstances, it takes effort to worship. But worship is exactly what you need in those moments.

David was known for being a worshipper. Let’s see what David did?

1 Samuel 30:1–6 ESV

1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire 2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. 3 And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. 5 David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

“But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

How does David strengthen himself in the Lord? He worships!

Let’s look at some of David’s Psalms to see what he may have been singing.

Worship turns our focus back to God.

Psalm 3:1–8 ESV

1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 7 Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah

Remember that you belong to God.

Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”

Who gets to tell you who you are?

It’s bad enough when things are not going well, but when other people are talking about you it is hard to keep your focus on God.

What other people say about you is not (necessarily) who you are!

Did they create you?

Do they know your innermost thoughts?

Are they able to give you a destiny and a future?

Only God can show you your true identity because you are created in His image.

Remember the attributes of God.

But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

In order to know what it looks like to be made in the image of God, we recall the attributes of God.

God is powerful.

We need to see God as big and the devil as little.

If God seems small to you it’s because you’re too far away.

God is good.

God did not create sin, that was man’s fault.

But God is redeeming- He makes bad things into good things.

We need to be reminded of God’s beauty, majesty and order.

God is just.

Not everything that happens is right and just, but God allows it.

God doesn’t always intervene for reasons only known to Him.

What we do know is that there will come a time when God will make everything right.

We want to be on the right side of justice when He does.

Remember the blessing of God.

Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!

God is always about blessing.

God made the world and He blessed it.

God told Abraham that His purpose was to bless the nations.

God blessed us in Jesus.

Our commission is to be carriers of that blessing.

Worship cultivates the blessing of God so that we can overflow with it.

We are rehearsing the blessing aspect of God when we worship and causing it to grow in our spirits.

Worship is relational.

Psalm 33:1–5 NIV

1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. 4 For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. 5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.

Psalm 33:20–22 NIV

20 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

Worship is an expression of the image of God in us.

Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous

In the Identity and Destiny Conference last weekend, one of the teachings was “Lies that Silence our Song.”

The story was told of a tribal culture where each child has a song composed for them while they are still in the womb and that song is sung over them at birth and on particularly important occasions of their life. If they are not behaving well the village gathers around them and sings their song to them as a way of telling them “remember who you are.”

When we worship by declaring to God His attributes, God is declaring back to us that we are made in His image.

By remembering who Gods is, we also remember who we are in relation to God.

God is the Creator and creativity is evidence of His nature in us.

“Music is all around us. All we have to do is listen.” - August Rush

Where does a song come from? Where does music come from?

The artist has a vision and reproduces what they see.

The musician writes the music that they hear in their head.

Worship is our fitting response to God.

Psalm 33:1 AMP

1 REJOICE IN the Lord, O you [uncompromisingly] righteous [you upright in right standing with God]; for praise is becoming and appropriate for those who are upright [in heart].

it is fitting for the upright to praise him

“fitting” literally means “beautiful”

Don Moen wrote a song from this verse call “Praise looks good on you!”

When we are worshipping and the presence of God is felt, there is a need to respond to the Presence.

“It’s like being on a date and you’re feeling the chemistry, but no kiss!”

How do we respond?

Acknowledge the presence of God.

Reveal what God is saying or doing.

Do something (laugh, cry, move, or be still) to participate in what God is doing.

Worship reinforces the relationship that we have with God.

In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.

Relationship is reciprocal (give and take, back and forth) it is a continual responding to one another.

Worship is more than just singing, it is raising hands, dancing or just laying flat out (prostrate) in the presence of the Lord.

Worship involves more than just our intellect, it engages our emotions and all of our senses.

We are going to go back into worship in a few moments to practice what we are learning, but before that there are other kinds of worship.

Communion is a powerful form of worship.

Communion is also a spiritual discipline and arguably the oldest form of worship that we have in the church.

In communion we reinforce our covenant with God through Jesus Christ.

It’s like renewing your vows or dancing to the song that was playing when you first met.

Lets take communion together as an expression of worship:

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Worship is something that we do actively.

Psalm 96:1–9 ESV

1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! 9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

Practice worship in your own prayer time.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!

The Bible tells us to sing a new song to the Lord.

It could be a spontaneous song that we sing during worship, but more likely one that you sing to the Lord personally.

Anyone who sings a spontaneous song in worship is probably a person who cultivated that gift in their own worship time with God.

Whether or not you can sing well is not the point, the point is that you give expression to what is rising up in your spirit.

Do you worship on your own, not just in church?

Do you sing in the car, in the shower or while you’re doing the dishes?

You can play worship music to change the atmosphere in your home or office.

Having a song in your head is a great way to meditate on scripture or on the truth of God.

Declare the things that God is showing you for the encouragement of others.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Notice how many times in this Psalm that declaration is mentioned.

“tell of His salvation” v. 2

“Declare His glory and His works” v. 3

“Ascribe to the Lord...” 3 times in verses 7-8

Sometimes you just need to speak out what is rising up in your spirit.

Declaration is powerful.

You need to hear yourself speaking the truth.

Other people may need to hear it too.

Gather for worship to give a greater expression of glory to God.

Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Most of the references to worship in the Bible are speaking of corporate worship.

Evangelicals emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus.

That is where it starts, but that’s not where it ends.

It’s like the candle lighting service that we celebrated on Christmas Eve.

We each have our own candle and we keep that lit,

But when we come together our light shines so much brighter when combined with that of others.

To worship is to experience Reality, to touch Life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is a breakthrough into the Shekinah of God, or better yet, to be invaded by the Shekinah of God. - Richard J. Foster “In Celebration of Discipline”

You cannot make revival happen, but you can create an environment in which revival can happen.

Each person comes with their own heart of worship.

They bring a united expression of praise to God.

God manifests his presence in their midst.

The people respond to God’s presence and are changed by it.

As a result, people are encouraged in their personal and corporate worship.

The presence of God increases spilling over into the community and into the world

Response time:

We are going to go back into a time of worship. Practice focusing on God. What are you singing? What does the song tell you about God?

Let your worship be your offering to God. Express yourself! Get up and move or do something to enter into the spirit of worship.

Practice making declaration in your worship. Let’s not just sing songs; let’s make declarations of truth!