why worship?
Worship.
Worship has molded and shaped me and changed how I view myself and the world.
It has taken me a lifetime of seeking it's meaning and purpose for me to find a resting place.
I consider myself a worshipper of God. A heart chasing him. My heart has chased many things in my journey. Worship hasn't always had a singular focus and even as one planning worship services I can find myself worshipping the idea of Jesus and even the knowledge rather than Worshipping Him period.
So, the last 2 months I have delved deep into studying worship and have written a 4 part series on Worship. I have called it Why Worship? I am currently teaching the class at my church on Wednesday nights. Week one was Aug 22nd. (BTW, this is why I haven't blogged much!) I had several who can't attend or missed and wanted the notes so, decided to make it a post!
Here is my notes- (I handed out a half-sheet with some key sentences with fill-in- the highlighted yellow are those key words)
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--> And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. This is where it starts and ultimately where we will end as a class. But we are going to break it down first!
We discussed our thoughts on what worship was, how it's expressed.
We also shared what our time with God looked like.
Challenge the class-
First things first challenge Make a list of your best case priorities and put God #1 Spend time with Him first every day. Pray, read, journal
Thanks for reading. I will post Session 2 next Friday!
Worship has molded and shaped me and changed how I view myself and the world.
It has taken me a lifetime of seeking it's meaning and purpose for me to find a resting place.
I consider myself a worshipper of God. A heart chasing him. My heart has chased many things in my journey. Worship hasn't always had a singular focus and even as one planning worship services I can find myself worshipping the idea of Jesus and even the knowledge rather than Worshipping Him period.
So, the last 2 months I have delved deep into studying worship and have written a 4 part series on Worship. I have called it Why Worship? I am currently teaching the class at my church on Wednesday nights. Week one was Aug 22nd. (BTW, this is why I haven't blogged much!) I had several who can't attend or missed and wanted the notes so, decided to make it a post!
Here is my notes- (I handed out a half-sheet with some key sentences with fill-in- the highlighted yellow are those key words)
-->
WHY WORSHIP?
Session 1
What does worship
mean?
Have Class members write a
quick definition handout.
Worship is not the slow song that the praise team sings. Worship is not the amount you place in the offering basket. Worship is not volunteering in children's church. Yes, these may be acts or expressions of worship, but they do not define what true worship really is. Unfortunately, the word worship gets flattened out all the time and reduced to a set of neat songs that make us feel good.
But this isn’t even the starting point for truthful worship. Truthful lives of
worship involve our entire existence--- READ (Rom. 12:1-2)-
Worship is not the slow song that the praise team sings. Worship is not the amount you place in the offering basket. Worship is not volunteering in children's church. Yes, these may be acts or expressions of worship, but they do not define what true worship really is. Unfortunately, the word worship gets flattened out all the time and reduced to a set of neat songs that make us feel good.
--> And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. This is where it starts and ultimately where we will end as a class. But we are going to break it down first!
We see the word “worship” in the
Bible from Abraham all through Revelations but came into real prominence in the
1300s. Worship is the combination of two words - Worth and Ship. There are numerous definitions of the word worship…..adoration,
honor, high regard or respect. Yet, one
in particular encapsulates the priority we should give to worship as a
spiritual discipline: Worship is to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission (Webster's
Dictionary,1828).
True worship, in other words, is defined by the priority we place
on who God is in our lives and where God is
on our list of priorities. True worship is a matter of the heart expressed (Expresses what is going on inside of us)
through a lifestyle of the pursuit of holiness. And as we evaluate our lives and lifestyles
and find ourselves feeling dry, dull we probably have lost track of our priorities
and so it is time for us to question ourselves---
Does my life express the beauty of holiness through an extravagant
or exaggerated love for God? (Those are
some fancy words in there!)
Am I living in extreme or excessive submission to God? (wowzers)
This is the definition of worship we are going to work with and over these next weeks we will explore it all and other questions as we engage in making worship a priority in our lives.
Am I living in extreme or excessive submission to God? (wowzers)
This is the definition of worship we are going to work with and over these next weeks we will explore it all and other questions as we engage in making worship a priority in our lives.
We worship God because he is God. Period. He created us to worship
Him. This is how it all started- and
then sin and separation. And only
because God loved us 1st can
we even begin to love Him extravagantly and submit extremely. We are all sinners, yet he still loved us
enough to send a savior. He loved us
first! This is and should be our response
back to Him– Worship.
And will be the only response that we carry with us from here into eternity.
It is highly appropriate to thank God for all the things he has done for us….our Savior However, true worship is shallow if it is solely an acknowledgement of God's wealth.
Psalm 96:5-6 says, "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary."
And will be the only response that we carry with us from here into eternity.
It is highly appropriate to thank God for all the things he has done for us….our Savior However, true worship is shallow if it is solely an acknowledgement of God's wealth.
Psalm 96:5-6 says, "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary."
In other words, our worship must be toward the one who is worthy
simply because of his identity as the Omnipotent (unlimited power), Omniscient (Knows all), and
Omnipresent (everywhere
simultaneously) One, and not just because God is wealthy and able to
meet our needs and answer our prayers. We must focus our practice of worship on
the worthiness of God and not his
wealthiness.
When we get that and truly place our priority on God- honoring Him
with extravagant love and extreme submission, He has a promise for us- Because of our God's unimaginable
generosity toward us, God, in all of his glory, chooses to respond to us
through our worship. This is the promise—that when we worship, God will come and commune with us
and transform us.
Oftentimes we get a distorted view that when God is with us- certain things should happen. The truth is that the promise is not that we will feel great or that our heavy load will be lifted, but that God will come…..He is WITH US THROUGH the circumstances. And sometimes it does feel great OR our burdens are lifted but that isn’t the reason we worship. IT is WHO HE IS! If worship relies on our feelings- then that is what it ends up being based on.
Oftentimes we get a distorted view that when God is with us- certain things should happen. The truth is that the promise is not that we will feel great or that our heavy load will be lifted, but that God will come…..He is WITH US THROUGH the circumstances. And sometimes it does feel great OR our burdens are lifted but that isn’t the reason we worship. IT is WHO HE IS! If worship relies on our feelings- then that is what it ends up being based on.
And when God comes in his own time as a response to our
worship, Psalm
96:13 declares, "Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for
he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge
the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness."
In other words, when we worship our God he will 1st- inspect our hearts; the other benefits that we tend to
expect because we lift up our feeble hands and shout with our weak voices are
worthless if our hearts are not right with God. When we offer God our true
worship, we are inviting him to inspect our hearts for anything that is not
like him. This is where we come to the other part of the promise of worship—we can be transformed into God's likeness
because he will reveal the truth about the condition of our hearts as we
worship him. This can be a scary
thought for us. Cause you know already
of changes you should or need to make.
He already knows and guess what…..HE LOVES YOU and has the very best as
HE SEES FIT.
Worship is having an extravagant or exaggerated love for God, and
if your life is not lived in extreme or excessive submission to him, then I
invite you to look at the priorities in your life, make a decision to not just
say you put Him first but actually do it. Evaluate your expressions of worship so that
through singing, declaring, and giving, you will "give to the LORD the
glory he deserves … " (Ps.
96:8). The promise is that when we worship
God in this way, he will come and commune with us. And above all, God will
respond to your worship by making your heart more like his.
AS WE ALLOW HIM to TRANSFORM US and OUR LIVES, We then grow and worship grows and it is a cycle of becoming more like Him.
** For me as a young college student learning about God and worship to Him to now- has grown Much Different.
**Oftentimes the reason we are feeling stuck in a rut or shut down on the inside is that we have never allowed God’s ongoing work- daily transformation in us.
Questions-/Discussion AS WE ALLOW HIM to TRANSFORM US and OUR LIVES, We then grow and worship grows and it is a cycle of becoming more like Him.
** For me as a young college student learning about God and worship to Him to now- has grown Much Different.
**Oftentimes the reason we are feeling stuck in a rut or shut down on the inside is that we have never allowed God’s ongoing work- daily transformation in us.
We discussed our thoughts on what worship was, how it's expressed.
We also shared what our time with God looked like.
Challenge the class-
First things first challenge Make a list of your best case priorities and put God #1 Spend time with Him first every day. Pray, read, journal
Thanks for reading. I will post Session 2 next Friday!
