A life of Worship

Intro

This morning I want us to focus on both the act and the object of our worship.

As human beings, each of have been created to worship something. We have an innate desire to devote ourselves to something greater than ourselves. Some people worship money. Others worship success. Some worship their spouse or their children, whereas some people seem to worship themselves above all else.

When I say the word “worship” many things come to our minds:

music

raised hands

a band of musicians in skinny jeans

sunday morning church service

singing

But worship is much more encompassing that just what happens on a Sunday morning during a worship service. Worship involves our entire being, our life’s devotion and it centers - not on us and our feelings - but on God and His great and glorious power.

Let’s start by giving clarity to this topic.

If I were to ask you “What is worship?” What would your response be?

Working Definition of worship: The reverential response of creation to the all-encompassing magnificence of God.

Worship can be best described by its literal translation : WORTH-SHIP

It means ascribing value and worth to the one we love.

It happens whenever we declare the goodness of God.

Praise occurs when we speak of his value with our words.

Worship happens when bow our hearts in reverence to His presence with raised hands

It’s fitting that we’re here on Valentine’s morning, talking about ascribing value and worth to God. After all, there has never been a valentine quite like the one He sent us in the person of Jesus, who laid down his life so that we could be set free from the bondage and the chains of sin and delivered from the penalty our actions deserved.

I want us to stop and pause…to catch the gravity of God’s love towards us:

It’s limitless,

it’s priceless,

it’s eternal.

It’s not something we have to earn or strive to achieve,

rather it is something he lavishes upon us simply because He wants to. HE IS LOVE!!!!

Everything we know about love, comes directly from Him and His interactions with humanity.

When we worship, we magnify and exalt God. We declare his attributes: His goodness. His power. His love. His patient. His faithfulness. His sovereiegnty.

Worship occurs in both corporate and personal settings. It happens in church sanctuaries yet it also happens at home in our living rooms and in the inner recesses of our hearts. Worship springs up anytime that we stop think about the awesomeness of the God we serve.

Psalm 138 describes the act of worship:

“I give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart; I will sing your praises before the gods. I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.”

Worship Involves

give thanks with our hearts

singing praises to Him with our voices

bowing down in reverence before Him

declaring his unfailing love and attributes

Now Let’s listen in as the Passion Translations makes this even more intimate and personal...

TPT

“I thank you, Lord, and with all the passion of my heart I worship you in the presence of angels! Heaven’s mighty ones will hear my voice as I sing my loving praise to you. I bow down before your divine presence and bring you my deepest worship as I experience your tender love and your living truth.”

Worship involves ALL THE PASSION of my heart…it should be soul-stirring, emotion-filled, heart-felt

When we worship, we declare His goodness singing our praises to God

- this is personal

-this is unique for every believer

- my praises are not like your praises

I bow down and bring you my DEEPEST WORSHIP

-not surface feelings or fleeting emotions

-but rather our deepest longing and our greatest desire

-our most heartfelt sentiments

-this involves our highest praise, the most holy and emotive worhsip we can offer

We don’t worship only when we hear our favorite worship song - we worship becuase it is the desire of our heart and the greatest privilege of our life to ascribe worth and praise to God.

And look what happens as we offer our worship to God…we experience his tender love and living truth in our hearts and lives.

True Worship can’t be cold or rote, our routine.

This is my complaint when I go to churches and hear an amazing band with talented singers yet the audience is just stading there.

Worship is not a spectator sport. It is an intimate and holy declaration of our SURRENDER TO GOD.

This is why worship is difficult for some people - especially for men

It involves submitting oursleves, prostrating ourselves before the One we love

When I worship it’s not pretty....Its messy, it heart-felt, it’s genuine, passionate and it touches the heart of God.

My deepest worship moments would be embrarassing for you to see

but its genuine. Its’ from my heart and it is an all-encompassing desire to let God know how much He means to me!

When I worship I declare that God is my King and that He has the right to RULE and to REIGN

in every area of my life

in whatever manner he chooses

I give up my right to control

I give up my right to direct him and to tell him what to do

I surrender

I let go

I become almost dead in His presence so that He can fully live in me.

Worship is deeply personal. It comes from a place deep within us that wells up to the point where it overflows and gushes out of us.

I think of David when he proclaimed his passionate love the the Lord....

““O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭63:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“O God of my life, I’m lovesick for you in this weary wilderness. I thirst with the deepest longings to love you more, with cravings in my heart that can’t be described. Such yearning grips my soul for you, my God!”

As you tell from this verse, Worship is intimate. It is messy. it is almost embarassing. But it is ESSENTIAL to our emotional and spirtual well being.

A few things I want us to remembers about worship....

Worship is a choice.

We live in tumultuous times. It’s easy to grumble, complain, to get stressed out and to feel overwhelmed to the point where we don’t know what to do. It’s in these moments where we need to remind ourslves that worship is not a feeling, it is a CHOICE.

I choose to worship in both good and bad times.

David wrote in Psalm 103

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits”

- It’s almost as if He’s giving himself a pep talk

Okay soul… you have a choice. You can mope or you can worhsip

You can wallow in defeat or you can raise a cry of victory to the Lord in worship

SO david chooses to praise the Lord and he does it by remembering all that God had done for him

— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103:1-5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

AMPLIFIED

“Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits–”

Whenever you are tempted to give in to fear or worry, worship instead!

“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”

‭‭Habakkuk‬ ‭3:17-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

You many not have a chjoice about the situation you are in

but you have a choice in the way you will respond

you wnat to open up the windowns of blessing

you want to kicjk the enemy in the teeth>

WORSHIP IN THE MIDST OF LACK and see the glorty of God shine in your life

2. WORSHIP IS A WEAPON