God is spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship in spirit and truth.” ~ John 4:24
Why Do We Worship God?
We Worthip GOD for so many reasons that can for the most part be summed up in the following three reasons.
HE IS WORTHY - GOD and GOD alone is Worthy of Praise. Nothing in all creation compares to HIS worth.
"For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.”
— Psalms 96:4
“I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.
— 2 Samuel 22:4
HE COMMANDS IT - Yes GOD actually COMMANDS that we worship HIM. It is not an option but an act of obedience born out of seeing HIS glory that compels us to worship HIM.
"You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name."
— Deuteronomy 6:13
IT IS WHAT WE WILL DO FOR ALL ETERNITY - NOW is our rehearsal for heaven! WORSHIP is what we will do for all Eternity. Better get your practice in!
"And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”"
— Revelation 4:9-11
WORSHIP is NOT just singing songs.
WORSHIP is EVERYTHING and is sown through EVERY ASPECT of life.
Below are some examples of WORSHIP:
Prayer & Meditation
“If prayer is anything, it is the highest form of worship that an individual can participate
in because prayer is saying, “God, Your name, Your kingdom, Your will be elevated; not
my will, not my kingdom, not my name.””
“Godly prayer is worship, acknowledging His sovereign will and our utter dependence,
confessing His glory and our sin, affirming our reliance on His wisdom, His grace, His
power, His preservation, His protection, and confessing our own impotence and
weakness.”
“Prayer is the most distilled essence of personal worship.”
-John MacArthur
“Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of
God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.”
— Ecclesiastes 5:2
“I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways.”
— Psalm 119:15
“I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy;
What god is great like our God?”
— Psalm 77:11-13
Testimony & The WORD
“A testimony is simply honoring the Lord by bearing witness to others about His work in
your own life.”
“Testimonies make Gospel truth take on flesh and blood. Testimonies invigorate and
excite us as we are reminded that God is alive and at work in our midst. Testimony stirs
the heart to praise the Lord for His work in our lives and moves us to reflect on God’s
work.”
“God's Word renews and refreshes the heart. It communicates life. When we faithfully submit ourselves to Holy Scripture, it will do its work. It is the Word that awakens dead and slumbering souls.”
“I will tell of Your name to my brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
You who fear the Lord, praise Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel.”
— Psalms 22:22-23
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
--Psalms 19:7-8
Remembrance
"Samuel used stones as a memorial when God’s people wanted to remember His
goodness and faithfulness. 1 Samuel 7:12 says that when God enabled the Israelites to
defeat the Philistines, the Prophet Samuel “took a stone and ... named it Ebenezer,
saying, ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us.'”
Joshua also used stones to help God’s people remember His goodness. After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, the Israelites experienced the power of God to roll back the waters of the Jordan River, enabling them to cross over and take possession of the Promised Land. Joshua then commanded them to build a memorial of stones as a public testimony of what God had done for them…stones that would remind them to keep on praising HIM.”
"Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do
these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the
Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the
Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial
to the sons of Israel forever.”
— Joshua 4:6-7
Praise
“For some, raising hands or dancing in the aisles may legitimately seem wrong to them,
whereas for another to not raise their hands and dance in song is wrong—one cannot
rebuke the other, for we cannot know what is in another’s heart.
But we must ask the question: Why don’t you raise your hands, dance for joy and shout to the Lord? For these are not modern ideas, introduced from a secular society into God’s church—as many have long-suggested. Rather, we see repeatedly throughout the Old Testament God’s chosen people responding to God’s presence with unrefined and and unconstrained joy.”
"And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen
ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with
shouting and the sound of the trumpet."
— 2 Samuel 6:14-15
"Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.”
— Psalms 33:1-3
"Praise Him with trumpet sound;Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel
and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud
cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the
Lord. Praise the Lord! "
— Psalms 150:3-6
Communion
"Our time of worship at the Table should leave us changed. For when we enter the presence of God, our hearts should burn within us as we remember that the one who was crucified, dead, buried, and rose again, is now alive and within us. This leads the worshiper to the mysterious greatness of God found at the Table.
The Lord's Supper is worship because it expresses the infinite worth of Christ. No one is more worthy to be remembered. No one is more worthy to be proclaimed. And no one can nourish our souls with eternal life but Christ. So let us come and remember, and proclaim and eat."
“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the
night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it
and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same
way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My
blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat
this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself,
and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
— 1 Corinthians 11:23-28
Giving
“In light of what Christ has done for us on the cross and the amazing grace we receive, our giving should be a reflection of what our heart treasures. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21). Our giving should be viewed as a part of our worship to the Lord. If we are just giving to mark off a line on our spiritual checklist, we are merely involved in charity and we are missing out on the great joy of being a cheerful giver.” “Giving is a joyful act of worship. We are greatly blessed to be part of God's sovereign plan by making kingdom-significant investments. Those that give worshipfully are filled with the joy of the Lord.”
“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his
heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
— 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and
test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of
heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.“
— Malachi 3:10
"A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling
His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more
than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she,
out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”
— Mark 12:42-44