Training for Godliness: Worship

Intro

Modern man, “worships his work, works at his play, and plays at his worship” (Whitney 95).

It is past time that we train ourselves for godliness in the exercise of worship.

Godliness is piety or devotion; therefore, worship in a sense is godliness.

Worship:

Worship from the Old English = worth + ship

191x in the Bible

Basic idea: bowing down before an high authority; Adonijah bowed before Solomon (1 Kings 1:53; Gen 24:52)

To train ourselves for worship, we must come to God, focus on Him and bow before Him

DISCUSSION

Come to God (Mk 5:6)

Before worship, one must approach (Mt 2:11; 8:2; 14:33)

Approach for salvation (Mt 11:28-30; Jn 14:6; Rev 22:17).

Approach appropriately—humbly, mercifully, and lovingly (Mic 6:6-8)

Approach God

publicly (Heb 10:25)—Christianity is not a solo practice; we are a community of believers, a body, a building, family, a household.

family (Josh 24:15)

privately (Mt 6:6; Lk 5:16)—we often talk of living as a Christian from Monday through Saturday, not just on Sunday; what about worshipping like a Christian on Monday through Saturday and not just on Sunday?

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Worship Is … Expected Both Publicly and Privately)

How is it possible to worship God publicly once each week when we do not worship Him privately throughout the week? Can we expect the flames of our worship of God to burn brightly in public on the Lord’s Day when they barely flicker for Him in secret on other days? Isn’t it because we do not worship well in private that our corporate worship experience often dissatisfies us?

Matthew Henry: Public worship will no excuse us from secret worship.

Focus on God (Mt 28:17)

Seeing God leads to worship (Mk 5:6)

Focus the mind and heart on why He is worthy of Worship (Jn 4:24)...

His Nature and characteristics (Ex 34:6-7)

The works of God’s Creation (Ps 19:1)

The Word made flesh (Heb 3:1; Jn 14:8-9)

The Word written (1 Tim 4:13)

“Since worship is focusing on and responding to God, regardless of what else we are doing we are not worshiping if we are not thinking about God.” Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 88.

Failing to focus on God leads to empty worship (Mt 15:8-9)

stale worship—repetitive

“If feelings for God are dead, worship is dead.” (Whitney 90)

Imagine giving your wife a beautiful bouquet of roses . She thanks you. You respond with, “It is obligatory for husbands to give flowers on an anniversary.” Where’s that heart in that?

Where’s the heart in “we are commanded to give on the first day of the week”? why not reading Ps 29:1-2 in a non-comatose way?

Bow before God

When we come to God, focus our attention on Him, then the only appropriate response is worship (Rev 4:10-11)

We worship in spirit (soul, heart) and truth (right action, mind) Jn 4:24; 1 Cor 14:15

Both required

The heart in worship

Ps 45:1—My heart is inditing a good matter—my heart is moved

Ps 103:1 “Bless the Lord, O my soul: And all that is within me, bless his holy name.”

Ps 119:161-162 “SCHIN. Princes have persecuted me without a cause: But my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word, As one that findeth great spoil.”

Christianity not only intellectual but emotional—we need balance

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Worship Is … Done in Spirit and Truth

So we must worship in both spirit and truth, with both heart and head, with both emotions and thought. If we worship too much just by spirit we will be mushy and soft on the truth, worshiping according to feelings. That can lead anywhere from a sleepy tolerance of anything in worship at one extreme to uncontrollable spiritual wildfire on the other. But if we worship by truth without spirit, then our worship will be taut, grim, and icily predictable.

EXHORTATION

Let us train ourselves for godliness by growing in our worship to God.

Have you come to God for salvation (Heb 5:9)?