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Worship
Fundamentals of Christianity 2
Lesson 4I. What is worship?
To worship is to love radically, to give extreme love. As Christians, we can worship only God. For anyone to love a person to this level is unnatural or obsessive. It would drive both people involved crazy. For a Christian to put anyone before God is idolatry. God will not tolerate idolatry. Anything we put before God becomes our god. It can be a person, things or even our self.
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14
If you do worship other gods, the Lord's anger will come against you like fire and will destroy you completely, because the Lord your God, who is present with you, tolerates no rivals. Deuteronomy 6:15
We shouldn't only express our love to God when we are at church, but every day. We can worship God with our life by living a life that is pure and devoted to Him. Everything we do should be done with thoughts of His will and His purposes in mind. This is a worshipful life style that we can offer to God daily.
We can also pour out our love to God at church or at home during our prayer and devotional time. God loves the praises and the worship of His children. We worship God because we love Him and we want to spend time expressing our radical love to God. He is worthy of love and adoration. There is no one like our God!
II. Why do we express our love to God in the ways that we do at church? They are biblical expressions of worship.
Some things we do when we express our worship to God:
1. Sing: We sing love songs to God when we worship Him and we sing jubilant songs about Him when we praise Him. Sometimes we sing songs we know and sometimes we make songs up from our heart as we worship.
Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! Psalm 47:1
2. Clap our Hands. Whenever we clap our hands during worship we are always clapping to or for the Lord, never for the worship leader. Our clap is a form of praise.
Oh clap your hands all your peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! Psalm 47:1
3. Dance: King David was a worshiper. He danced and worshiped God with all His heart. God said that King David was a man after His own heart. Many people believe that dance is a worldly thing and it can be if it is used out of its place and context. Just like many other things, Satan and those who follow him have twisted the use and meaning, thereby; perverting dance. Dance itself is not evil, only using it for evil purposes makes it evil, for example causing people to lust by dancing sexually and provocatively .
Sadly, the church has allowed Satan to steal dance. They have decided it was an evil thing and have forbidden it in the church. In fact, God is the author of dance. He loves dance, it belongs to Him. Dance is a wonderful expression of our love for God, and for our thankfulness for what God has done for us. To dance unto the Lord is a holy thing. When we dance unto the Lord with the right heart, He sees and He is pleased. Dance in itself is beautiful and when done unto the Lord as worship, it is both beautiful and holy. More and more churches today are allowing dance as a form of praise and worship during services. We can dance before the Lord in our private times of worship at home as well.
And David Danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. 2 Samuel 6:14
Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance. Psalm 150
4. Shout: Sometimes during the praise part of a service people may shout to the Lord. This is done because of their joy and thankfulness to the Lord.
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Psalm 95:1
5. Bow: We may bow reverently to the Lord during our time of worship.
Bow down and worship the Lord our Creator! Psalm 95:6
6. Play musical instruments: We use musical instruments to sing to the Lord. But also the instrumental music, in itself, can be worship to the Lord.
Also with the lute I will praise you and with your faithfulness, O my God! To you I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel. Psalm 71:22
7. Speaking or singing in tongues: Tongues in this context, is a language you have not learned, given to you by the Holy Spirit. When we speak or sing in tongues during a worship service, we are giving praise and worship to God with our spirit by the Holy Spirit. This use of tongues does not need to be interpreted because with it we are giving praise to God and it is not for the edification of man. We pray and praise in tongues quietly between ourselves and God (not directed in a way that the church will stop and listen as if it is a word from God to them). There is also a time when tongues are used in a church service and the words must be interpreted because they are spoken not as praises to God but rather as God's (Holy Spirit) words to the church in order to edify the church. If the words are not interpreted, the church (members) will not understand them and cannot be edified by them. But for this teaching we are speaking only of offering praise to God in our prayer language (tongues).
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:4
Now they were hearing Gentiles speaking unknown languages and praising God. (Act 10:46a CEV)
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. (1Co 12:28 KJV)
8. Crying: When we worship God, He comes near to us. His presence settles down over us and is so very sweet. Many times, we cannot help but cry. He embraces us with His love and all the pain, worry, sorrow, fear or disappointment melts away. It is one of God's ways of cleansing us.
III. What Happens when we worship?
1. His presence brings us emotional healing and cleansing. All the junk like fear, insecurity and depression fall away in His presence. The bad things are replaced with good things such as joy, love, peace and acceptance.2. We grow in intimacy with Him. We grow to love Him more.
3. He strengthens us. Fear and doubt leave.
4. We get to know Him better. He reveals more of Himself to us when we spend intimate time with Him. He reveals His heart to us during times of worship.
5. Demons flee when we worship God. Tormenting spirits cannot stay.
6. He reveals His heart to us and shows us His plan for our life. He puts His holy desires into our heart.
7. We are able to experience God. When we worship God, we draw Him near to ourselves.
8. We are changed. We are made more into His image every time we truly worship Him.
IV. Worship is a choice.
God will not force us to worship Him even though He really wants us to. It is always our choice. We have to make that decision and step out do it.
When we worship, it is good to close our eyes in order to shut out every distraction. We must focus on Him alone. Pressing into God in worship and entering into the spirit realm takes time, but it gets easier as we continue to do it. Watching others worship may be fun or interesting and even spiritually beneficial but if you want to experience God, you will have to worship Him yourself. Watching someone else have an intimate relationship with God will not give you a relationship with Him. You must develop your own.
V. Reverence:
We must come into the presence of God reverently and respectfully. We should always ask God to forgive us of any sins we might have committed. Then begin to worship by offering praises up to Him. As we begin to worship Him, He will begin to draw near to us. Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures to all generations.Psalm 100:4-5
We should always be respectful of other worshipers. Never make distracting noises or do anything to draw attention to yourself and away from God. God won't appreciate you stealing His time with His children. Never touch people when they are worshiping unless it is an emergency. People don't appreciate being pulled away from an intimate time with God either. If you are in a worship service and don't want to worship, be quit and still. Never speak out during a worship service unless you have a word from the Lord to share with the group.
Never be disrespectful or make fun of anything of God. Things of God are Holy. Speaking against something that is done by the Holy Spirit is blasphemy and will not ever be forgiven by God.
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Matthew 12:31-32
If you read all of Matthew chapter 12, you will see that the men Jesus is rebuking in this passage were saying bad things about the work that the Holy Spirit had done. Supernatural things you may see in a worship service are things the Holy Spirit is doing. If you have negative oppinions, keep them between you and God and ask Him to reveal truth to you. This is not to say that you cannot question things, but do it in a way that does not insult the Spirit of God. Be careful not to make a mockery of the things of God. That is dangerous territory. Always be respectful of the things of God, even if you do not understand them.
In conclusion, God loves us to worship Him. He longs to spend intimate time with us. However, He will never force us. He will wait patiently for us to come to Him. We don't have to wait until we are in a church service to worship Him. We can and should worship God daily.
Weekly Challenges:
Scripture Memorization: If you worship me, the LORD your God, I will bless you with food and water and take away all your sicknesses.
Exodus 23:25L.O.V.E. Challenge: Spend at least 30 minutes 2 days this week worshiping God at home during your prayer time. We will provide you with worship music if you have none or you can listen to 95.7 FM. It is a worship channel. Make an honest effort to press in and spend intimate time with God, it will be well worth the effort! Be prepared to tell the class how it went.
Scripture Reading: Read a chapter of the Bible each day working your way through the New Testament.
Prayer: Pray at least 20 minutes daily.