I. Worship: What is it?
Worship is extreme love.
As Christians we can only worship God, to worship any other person or thing is idolatry, a very serious sin. God won't put up with.
There are different ways to express worship, one is simple by obeying God. But we are going to talk about the kind of worship we do in church. Pouring out our love and affection on God.
We shouldn't only worship God while we are in a church service or a bible study but everyday in our home. Worship is an important part of a Christians life.
God loves the worship and the praises of His people.
Psalms 100:1-5 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
We should enter into His presence with thanks giving and praise. This is why we normally begin our worship time with praise.
Praise is a time of thanks giving. It is when we sing up beat, thankful, joyful type of music. It is to be a time of dancing and celebration for Gods goodness towards us. Read Psalm 150
God enjoys this but, He really enjoys our worship.
John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
II. Why do we express our love and worship to God the ways that we do in church services?
Because it is biblical.
1. Sing: 1Chron. 16:9 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him, takl of all His wondrous works!
1 Ch 16:63 Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
2 ch 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed hose whoshould sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: "Praise the Lord, for his mercy endures forever."
Psalm: 21:13- Be exalted, o Lord, in your own strength! We will sing and praise your power.
Psalm33:3 Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy
Psalm 47:6 Sing praises to God sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
2. Clap our hands
psalm 47:1 oh clap your hands all your peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
3. Dance: psalm 150: Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
King David was a worshiper, He danced before the Lord with all His heart.
We dance in praise and we can also dance in worship as 2 people in love would dance together. It is another way of being intimate with God.
4. Shout: Psalm 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
5. Bow: Psalms 95:6 Oh come, let us worsip and bow down; Let us kneed before the Lord our Maker.
6. Play musical instruments: Psalm 71:22 Also with the lute I will praise you –and your faithfulness, o my God! To you I will sing with the harp, O Holy of Israel.
7. Speak in tongues: prayer language. Our spirits praising God.
8. Crying: God inhabits the praises of His people. When we worhsip him He comes near us. Crying is not necessarily worship but many times when we worship we cannot help but to cry.
James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.....
When we worship God He comes near us and melts all the junk off of us. He embraces us with His love. He presence is so sweet and kind sometimes we just can't help but to cry.
III. Why is it important to worhsip God?
We need to spend time with God...think of all the time playing videos or other stuff. God wants some of your time!
It blesses God...He loves it, because he loves us and wants intimacy with us.
He is worthy
It helps us to have a relationship with God.
He lift us up and cleanses us.
Restores us
We are able to hear Gods voice as He speaks His will to us.
We learn more of him in his presence...we get to know him better
praise and worship chases away demonic spirit all all kinds...depression, etc
Isa. 61:3 To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ahes, the oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.IV. Worship is a choice. God will not make you do it.
We have to step out and do it by closing our eyes and focusing on God. We close our eyes to shut out distractions so we can focus on God.
Then we begin to praise or worhsip him with our mouth in song or in different ways.
We express our feeling toward God. It get easier and easier as we do it. Once God gets involved back with us it get really easy and really awesome...
It is a very person time between us and God. It is spiritual and it is very real and very real things are at work. Gods presence is real and His work in our life that occurs during our times of worship are very real.
V. Reverence:Worship is a holy time and a holy thing. Not to be taken in a light manner. We should never take the Holy things of God in a light or an irreverent or disrespectful way.
We should never talk or do anything during worship that would cause others not to be able to worship God. Like tapping someone on the shoulder. Never do that unless it is an emergency. If it can wait let it wait.
Never make fun of Holy things. It is a dangerous thing to do and will not be tolerated in our home, under any circumstances. If I hear of it you will not be allowed back. It is a major insult to us to insult our God or our faith.
Blaspheme the Holy Spirit: Matthew 12:30 or Luke 12:10
God does not tolerate blashpemy against the Holy Spirit...Worship brings the Holy Spirit. It is Him we are worsiping