Worship

What It Is…What It Is Not…

God told us to set aside one day out of seven for a very good reason: He knew we needed it. If we work all the time, not only will we wear out physically, but we’ll also neglect our relationship with God.

This is why one of the Ten Commandments says, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:9-10). (The word “Sabbath,” incidentally, comes from an old Hebrew word that means to cease or stop doing something.)

This also is why we observe the Sabbath best when we use it for both rest and worship. Our bodies need rest, and that’s why the Old Testament decreed, “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest” (Exodus 34:21). But our souls also need renewing—and that’s why the Sabbath also should be a time for worship and instruction in God’s Word. Jesus regularly attended worship on the Sabbath (e.g., Luke 4:14-16).

I’m afraid we’re in danger of forgetting this commandment today—but when we do, we pay a price both physically and spiritually. Instead, God loves us, and He wants to bless us by giving us rest and restoring our souls. May this be true every week for you—and every day. When we know Christ, every day is an opportunity to love Him and serve Him more.

What Is Worship, Anyway?

“I can worship God much better,” say some, “outdoors where I see His handiwork than in a stuffy church.” And, I confess, I’ve thought the same thing on occasion. But the question is, “Do they worship at the beach, on a mountain trail, on the tennis courts, or driving on a freeway?” Or do folks simply use that as an excuse to avoid going to church?

What is worship, anyway? If I go to church, is that worship? If I sing the songs–whatever they may be–does that constitute worship? Or is it an internal connection with God which has little to do with the three song, announcement, and message routine that many churches have followed with a regularity that never varies?

When you read the Old Testament you quickly notice that worship wasn’t something which was taught; it was something which men and women did, often spontaneously but in humility and contrition. It was an immediate response to an encounter with God. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah had an encounter with God. You read about it in the sixth chapter of the book that bears His name. He saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted. He heard two angelic beings in the heavens crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” He saw the doorposts of heaven tremble, and the temple was filled with smoke.

It is no wonder that he prostrated himself before God, crying, “Woe to me! I am ruined! I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!”

No doubt we would do the same thing, should we see the LORD Almighty.

Worship, as defined by the Bible, always embraces the recognition of God’s worthiness as opposed to our unworthiness. It involves recognizing Him as Creator, as Redeemer, as Sustainer, as Sovereign Lord, as well as the Giver of life and blessing.

Part of worship involves your physical posture but far more it concerns the posture of your heart, which comes as an act of your will. Perhaps you remember that Jesus said true worship involves worshiping in spirit and in truth. So how did the disciples understand that?

Probably no better than we do today. Worshiping in spirit means your innermost being cries out in worship, and worshiping in truth demands that you recognize who God is, what His son has done for you, and that what He has said about our lives and futures is true. The psalmist cried out, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). Don’t confine your worship to the cathedral. Worship every day, giving thanks and praise to the Almighty. Remember, you were born to worship.

Your Time Of Private Worship

This is no recipe for developing your personal & private time of worship to The Lord. Whatever inspires you to praise His Holy Name, be thankful for His many blessings, and draw you nearer to Him with a heart full of sweet & pure love is what you should offer to Him.

In order to help you worship The Lord in a way pleasing to Him and joyful to you, we have the following to offer:

Your Time Of Family Worship

“Therefore, you shall lay up these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-19)

When your children are little, it’s always good to have family worship, to start the day with the Word of God. But how do you do it successfully?

Adrian Rogers and his wife Joyce said that they tried all kinds of things with their kids for family worship. He wants to pass on one of the simplest, easiest forms of family worship. He said he didn’t know why he hadn’t discovered it a long time ago. It’s such a blessing. You can still do this with your grandchildren, and with your grown children at breakfast when they’re with you.

They just let one of the little children old enough to read take the Bible and choose a proverb. They can choose it at random. If it’s the seventh day of the month, choose from the seventh chapter of Proverbs, and read a proverb, just one. Or, since Proverbs has 31 chapters—basically the same as the number of days in the month—they can choose a proverb from the corresponding day. And let that child explain what he thinks that proverb means. Then everyone else just talks about it for a few moments.

It is so simple. But when your children are learning those proverbs and having to think about what they mean, you’re giving them distilled wisdom, a nugget of truth they can carry with them to school and to work.

Give your children and grandchildren wise instruction, but let that instruction be joined with training. “Train up a child.”

To help you plan and conduct your own family worship services, please refer to Planning A Public Worship Service under Worship in the menubar.

Your Time Of Public Worship

We are meant to serve the Lord in community, not just on our own. It is also a public witness to the claims of Christ. Our praise proclaims Him Lord and Savior, Healer and Baptizer, ever-present Friend, and soon coming King! True corporate or public worship is one of the most evangelistic things the church can do! Public worship helps Christians to achieve a deeper understanding of the Bible, the life of Jesus and Christian teachings. It also enables those who receive Holy Communion to welcome Jesus into their hearts.

Public worship does not mean you have to be present in a church building. That building is not the church – we are!!! Public worship may be in an elegant cathedral or a bench in the park. According to The Bible, Public Worship is “wherever two or more are gathered in My Name says The Lord”. This can be with your family around the breakfast table at home, in your room at the hospital with friends, or in a nursing home from your bed where you are a permanent shut-in.

To help you plan and conduct your own public worship services, please refer to Planning A Public Worship Service under Worship in the menubar.

Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Psalm 95:6

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath 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 unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Psalm 100

I will declare thy name unto my brethren:
in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Psalm 22:22

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.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is—
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1

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