The Heart of Worship is About The Heart… Part 2
[Samuel] looked at Eliab [the eldest son] and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:6-7
Worship Takes Us Beyond The Realm Of
Through Worship We Step Into
The Vital Role Of Real Worship…
Real
Worship Proves The Intimacy And Legitimacy Of Our Relationship With God.
Real
A Psalm of David; when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You; my soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have gazed upon You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. So will I bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul [my life, my very self] is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises [to You] with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate and thoughtfully focus on You in the night watches, for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings [where I am always protected] I sing for joy. Psalm 63:1-7 [Also Read Psalm 84]
Real Worship Solicits [Calls Down] God’s
Enter His gates with a song of thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, bless and praise His name. Psalm 100:4
We go astray when we think that we can do spiritual work without spiritual power. A. W. Tozer
Real Worship Helps Us To Express Our
Real Worship Will Always
But King David said to Ornan, “No, I will certainly pay the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” 1 Chronicles 21:24
Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High; Call on Me in the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you shall honor and glorify Me. Psalm 50:14-15
Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him [Worship him in total commitment.] in sincerity and in truth; remove the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the [Euphrates] River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve [to Worship] the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
Digging Deeper on The APP
Is Church Attendance / Going To Church Important?
Simply put, the Bible tells us we need to attend church so we can worship God with other believers and be taught His Word for our spiritual growth. The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We should follow that example of devotion—and to the same things. Back then, they had no designated church building, but “every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46). Wherever the meeting takes place, believers thrive on fellowship with other believers and the teaching of God’s Word.
Church attendance is not just a “good suggestion”; it is God’s will for believers. Hebrews 10:25 says we should “not [be] giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Even in the early church, some were falling into the bad habit of not meeting with other believers. The author of Hebrews says that’s not the way to go. We need the encouragement that church attendance affords. And the approach of the end times should prompt us to be even more devoted to going to church.
Church is the place where believers can love one another (1 John 4:12), encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13), “spur” one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), instruct one another (Romans 15:14), honor one another (Romans 12:10), and be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32).
When a person trusts Jesus Christ for salvation, he or she is made a member of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). For a church body to function properly, all of its “body parts” need to be present and working (1 Corinthians 12:14–20). It’s not enough to just attend a church; we should be involved in some type of ministry to others, using the spiritual gifts God has given us (Ephesians 4:11–13). A believer will never reach full spiritual maturity without having that outlet for his gifts, and we all need the assistance and encouragement of other believers (1 Corinthians 12:21–26).
For these reasons and more, church attendance, participation, and fellowship should be regular aspects of a believer’s life. Weekly church attendance is in no sense “required” for believers, but someone who belongs to Christ should have a desire to worship God, receive His Word, and fellowship with other believers.
Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church (1 Peter 2:6), and we are “like living stones … being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). As the building materials of God’s “spiritual house,” we naturally have a connection with one another, and that connection is evident every time the Church “goes to church.”
What Does God’s Word Say About Worship?
In the Bible, worship describes both a way of life and a specific activity. Praising, adoring, and expressing reverence for God, both publicly and privately, are specific acts of worship. In a broader sense, worship refers to an overall lifestyle of serving and glorifying God and reflecting His glory to others.
When the Old Testament prophet Jonah said, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” (Jonah 1:9, NLT), he was speaking of a lifestyle wholly dedicated to glorifying God. The apostle Paul also defined worship as an all-encompassing way of life: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).
Believers participate in specific acts of worship whenever they celebrate God’s worthiness and greatness by giving honor and glory to His name. Worship can be expressed in words, shouts, singing, bowing down, raising hands, and many other ways. The psalmist urges the faithful to enter into acts of worship: “Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song” (Psalm 95:1–2).
The word Greek word for “worship,” proskuneō, means “to encounter God and praise Him.” For centuries the Jewish people had encountered God in the temple for worship. But when Jesus arrived on the scene, He spoke metaphorically of Himself as the temple (John 2:19–22). Through His resurrection from the dead, Jesus became the spiritual dwelling place where God and His people would meet (see Matthew 12:6 and Hebrews 10:19–20).
In John 4:23–24, Jesus made it clear that the physical location of our worship is no longer relevant: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24). True worship takes place on the inside, within our hearts or spirits, which is the dwelling place of God (Psalm 103:1–2; Ephesians 2:22).
Humans were created to worship God (Psalm 29:1–2; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Ephesians 1:3–6; Philippians 2:9–11). The purpose of the church, beyond serving the Lord and spreading the gospel, is to worship God through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4–6; 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 5:6–14).
God is the object of our worship. He alone is worthy of worship (1 Chronicles 16:25; Psalm 96:4–5). Worshipping God means crediting to Him the absolute worth that He alone deserves. He is our Creator (Acts 17:28; James 1:17; Revelation 4:11), Redeemer (Colossians 1:12–13; 1 Peter 1:3), and Lord (Psalm 22:27). The Father and the Son receive worship (Matthew 14:33; 28:17; Luke 7:16); the holy angels worship God and refuse to be worshipped themselves (Revelation 19:10; 22:9).
A biblical concept of worship involves praising God and giving Him glory with our lips and our lives, with our words and our deeds, with our physical bodies and our spiritual hearts. Worship that pleases God is authentic, offered with clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3–4; Isaiah 66:2).
What Are The Ingredients To A Truly Biblical Worship Service?
Humans are instinctively worshiping creatures. The psalmist expressed this when he wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Cicero in the first century BC observed that religion, regardless of its form, was a universal trait of man. Seeing that people are going to worship something or someone, we should ask what is worship? Whom and how shall we worship? What constitutes a biblical worship service, and, most importantly, will we be “true worshipers” (John 4:23) or false worshipers?
Christ commanded that true worshipers worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). The apostle Paul explained that we worship by the Spirit of God (Philippians 3:3), meaning that true worship comes only from those who have been saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have the Holy Spirit living in their hearts. Worshiping in spirit also refers to having the proper heart attitude, not simply adhering to rites and rituals. To worship in truth means to worship according to what God has revealed about Himself in Scripture. In order for our worship to be biblical, it must abide within the doctrine of Christ (2 John 1:9; see also Deuteronomy 4:12; 12:32; Revelation 22:18–19). True worship relies on the instructions given in the Bible and can be offered with or without a Book of Confessions, Rules of Order, or other manmade book of instructions or guidance.
The first-century church engaged in several devotional acts in their worship services, from which we can determine what comprises a truly biblical worship service: the communion supper was observed (Acts 20:7), prayers were offered up (1 Corinthians 14:15–16), songs were sung to the glory of God (Ephesians 5:19), a collection was taken (1 Corinthians 16:2), the Scriptures were read (Colossians 4:16), and the Word of God was proclaimed (Acts 20:7).
Communion and prayer were also essential elements of the early church service. The communion supper commemorates Jesus’ death until He returns (1 Corinthians 11:25–26). Prayer should be directed only to God (Nehemiah 4:9; Matthew 6:9) and in harmony with the will of God (1 John 5:14). Corporate prayer is important because it creates unity (John 17:22-23) and is a key aspect of believers’ encouraging one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and spurring one another on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).
In our worship, we should sing. The apostle Paul commands us to “speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:19–20). Singing to the Lord and to one another conveys truth set to music (Colossians 3:16).
Part of true biblical worship is giving an offering, as Paul instructed the Corinthian church: “Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made” (1 Corinthians 16:1–2). Our regular giving for the support of the Lord’s work is a serious responsibility. The opportunity to give should be viewed as a thrilling blessing, not as a burdensome matter for grumbling (2 Corinthians 9:7). Additionally, freewill giving is the only explicitly biblical method for financing the work of the church.
Finally, preaching and teaching are major ingredients of true biblical worship. Our teaching must be the Scriptures alone, the only means of equipping believers for life and godliness (2 Timothy 3:16–17). The godly preacher or teacher will teach only from the Word and rely on the Spirit of God do His work in the minds and hearts of his listeners. As Paul reminded Timothy, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). A church gathering that does not include the Word of God as a major component is not a biblical worship service.
As we follow the pattern of true worship in Scripture, let us worship God with great passion. We must not convey to the world the impression that the worship of our God is a boring, lifeless ritual. We have been redeemed from sin. Let us therefore praise our Creator as His children who are grateful for His bountiful blessings. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28–29).