What is Worship ?

Worship is the paying of religious reverence to God and rendering Him with divine honor - adoration, thanksgiving, prayer, praise, and offerings.  He who receives these honors must be worthy, as is indicated by the word worship.  Worship in old English was weorthscipe, from weorth, “worthy”, and scipe, meaning “shape, condition, or quality”, and so “the condition of being worship.” (Wilfred Funk, Word Origins, p.283)

Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it well when it declares that -

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

William Temple’s definition of worship -  

“To Worship is  -  to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God,

                              to feed the mind with the truth of God,

                              to purge the imagination by the beauty of God,

                              to open the heart to the love of God,

                              to devote the will to the purpose of God.”

John Stott -

“True worship is the highest and noblest activity of which man, by the grace of God, is capable.”

A.W. Tozer -

Worship is the missing jewel. He pointed out that both the importance of worship as well as his concern for the lack of proper worship in the church.

To worship God  means to ascribes to Him the most supreme worth because He and He alone is worthy – “Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev. 4:11 

Thus, the Christian worship is -

• The expression of our love and allegiance to God, paying divine honor, homage and reverence to the supreme Being of God.  Worship is ceremonies which embody the expression of this love, allegiance, honor and reverence.

• A means of uniting the two intangibles, those two are God Almighty and Man’s heart.

• An active concern which seeks God’s will as revealed in His Word.

Why do we worship God and declare His worth ?

• Because of  Who God Is and He deserves it.

• We are part of God’s creation – exist to worship and praise Him: Heavens declare God’s glory, Ps.19, Man worships God, Ps. 96 and Creation praises God, Ps. 148 ).

• Our indebtedness to God.  We owe Him our life, existence, health, food, redemption and everything we have.

• All our worship is the first-fruits of the worship of  Heaven.  We will join the angels and spirits of those made perfect, then we will worship and praise Him as we should (Heb. 12:22-24,28)  Our worship now mirrors worship in heaven.

Our Worship Must Be Transformational

We ought to remember that there these four things are happening as we come before God in  worship:

1.   The Lived World –  we bring our life-experiences into the worship.

2.   The Self –  we bring our whole person into the worship.

• The Void – we bring our negative aspects of life-experiences into worship.

• The Holy – we must allow the Holy God to invade into our life to transform from within in worship.

Transformational Worship

1.   Is Trinitarian Focus

1.1 All worship is to be God-centered or directed to God, the Father.  The focus of our  attention in worship must be on God.  All our worship is a response to God’s Greatness as we begin with the call to worship.

Psalm 145:3 – “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.”

Psalm 34:3 – “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.”

Transformational Worship Magnifies the Greatness and Glory of God (The Father)

1.2 All worship is to be focused on Jesus Christ, the Son.  He died for us as the perfect Lamb of God and rose again and He now lives to intercede for us.  He will offer the kingdom to the Father. (1Cor.15:28)

Rev.5:9 – “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

Worship must be Gospel-centered & Cross-centered because through Jesus Christ, we gain access to God and is acceptable to God. (John 4:19-21)

Transformational Worship Magnifies the Greatness of God and Glory of God in Jesus Christ. (The Son)

1.3 All worship is to be spiritual, led and filled by the Holy Spirit.  True worship of God   John 4:23-24 – “But the hour cometh, and now us, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship. God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

True worship ought to be in spirit and in truth.  Pray for that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us in our preparing for the worship service. The Spirit reveals God’s truths and convicts us of our sins and affirms in our hearts that we are the sons of God.

Transformational Worship Magnifies the Greatness and Glory of God in Jesus Christ and through the power of the blessed Holy Ghost. (The Spirit)

2.   Is  focussed on The Word

All worship is to be centered on the Word of God, according to and be filled with the Word.   

Psalm 138:2 – “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

Col 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one anther in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

We focus on the Word because God has revealed Himself as the Word (John 1:1), and by the Word (2Tim.3:16, John 17:17). God works through His Word (Heb.11:3, 2Tim.3:16-17) and God brings about the New Birth through His Word (1Pet.1:23)

3.   Is Community Based

      The Church is God’s people called to Him and to each other.  1 Cor. 12

4.   Involves The Worshipper Totally and Completely

Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:29-30):

Mind - worship has a theological content. It teaches and edifies God’s people.  It also involves the imagination - Psalms are imagery in language.  God is worthyof being worshipped with all our creativity.  Pray that God will guide us in being creative.

Emotion - we must express our love for God in joy or in sorrow and in grief and pain over sin and suffering.  Psalms cover the whole range of human experiences and emotions.  They see every aspect of life from God’s perspective.  Through prayer, praise, lament, faith triumphs across the whole range of human experience.Will - Confession is an act of the will. Sermon calls for acts of confession of sin, repentance and commitment.Body  - lifting up holy hands symbolize the activities of life (1 Tim.2:8), bowing (Ps. 138:2), kneeling (Lk. 22:41) 

• It Involves Possession and Offerings – it represents our whole lives. (Rom. 12:1-2)

• Should be cultural specific 

Use language that can be understood in a particular culture, place, and time.  Worship  must bring what is happening around us in our society and world before God  (political, economic and etc) and seeks the input from God’s Word (his judgment, mercy and direction).

Some observations:

1.  In worship, we must focus on God’s attributes – His holiness, truth, beauty, love and purposes.

2.  Pleasing God must be central in our worship.  Our attention should be God’s pleasure, not our  own. Worship service should not glorify man – whether it is the preacher, worship leader, testimony giver, or choir..

3. Worship is only secondarily a fellowship. It is the vertical dimension of worship which anchors the horizontal dimensions.

4. The congregation is not the audience. The primary audience in the worship service is God Himself. In worship we serve the audience of ONE. The worship service is therefore not for entertainment, but for the glory of God. Worship ought to be intergenerational – in the true Christian community, there is unity in diversity and multi-generational worship. Children and youth ought to grow up with the rituals, practices, vocabulary and life of the faith community.  This is a good way to ground them in the faith.