Worship
Ken’s Notes
Humans are made to worship, we will all worship something, there is something outside, beyond ourselves we look up to, value or aspire to. It could be the power of nature, power, wealth, freedom, independence, country, or a deity something or someone transcendent.
Scripture reveals that what we are to worship is a who: God, Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai, the creator, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Deliverer from slavery, I AM…Scripture is full of hundreds of names of God. The names can reveal God’s character, his actions, his relationship. For Christians, Jesus revealed to us God as Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus also reveals that this Triune God extends to us an invitation to intimacy with them. This means that we do not initiate worship, worship is a response we have to God’s invitation to join with Him. The early church described it as joining in the dance. Worship can be understood as falling into the arms of the Trinity and saying, “Have your way with me, lead me and I will follow”.
So the first point about worship is to consider the object of your worship….what or who do you worship?
Worship can take many forms: celebration, gratitude, eucharistic, sabbath keeping. Also many styles: liturgical or spontaneous, corporate or individual, loud and high energy or quiet and reflective, with music and words or silence and meditation, in a building, your car or by a river.
The where and the how is not really important, the object and our motivation are what are important. Is worship for us? So that we get something out of it? For me to feel something or learn something? OR is it for the sake of the one we are worshiping?
We might well get something out of it, we often do, but that is always secondary to worshiping for the sake of the one we love and who first loved us.
When do you struggle to worship?
Lamentations 3:20-24 (From Jeremiah the weeping Prophet)
My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
and Psalm 137… Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem
By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
Down to its foundations!”
Circumstances ought not stop us from worship. They may change the form and style but not that we worship.
Worship happens whenever we intentionally cherish God and value the Trinity above all else in life.
Why is understanding worship or having a theology of worship important? Because we become like that which we worship, what it values, what it teaches us about others and ourselves. Worship by its nature transforms us into its likeness.
4 passages to consider: (What do they tell you about worship)
Revelation 4:11
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.
Matthew 4:10
Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Hebrews 12:28-29.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
“The heart of worship is to seek to know and love God in our own unique way. Each one of us fulfills some part of the divine image. Each one of us loves and glorifies God in a particular way that no one else can.”
Adele Calhoun Spiritual Disciplines Handbook
Reflection questions:
How did a particular style of worship—charismatic, traditional, contemporary, liturgical—shape you and your image of God?
How does a particular form or style of worship shape you now?
Who is God to you? What names do you use for God and how does that shape how you see, understand and worship God?
How does worshiping alone and worshiping with others affect you?
What about God moves you to worship?
What inhibits you from worship?
How do you think you can grow or mature in worship?