Bible Lesson 35

On Worship
#1 in a series

We know from our past few lessons, that our foundations are broken up! So, there is only one way that we can ever turn that around, and it is, by coming back to the old paths that were established by God from the beginning. (See Jeremiah 6:16a). We will never be able to come back to God unless and until we get our worship right, so we will look at worship in these next few lessons and see what we need to consider.

Worship is between the creature and the Creator, it is the human reaching outside him or herself to touch and to praise and thank their Lord for daily provision. There are some things that we need to have in order before we attempt to worship God; because God is holy and Sovereign and He demands a certain level of repentance, conversion, and purity of heart to even approach God.

Perhaps the most important thing that we need to accomplish before we seek to worship is a concerted examination of ourselves. (2nd Corinthians 13:5). We need to make sure that our relationship with God comes up to what God calls for. (Ecclesiastes 5:1). Do we need to ask ourselves, “Am I obedient to God” Do I do, what I do, because I love Jesus Christ? (John 14:21-24). Then we need to make sure that we are on track, we need to ask ourselves, what is it, that I am doing for God”? Then a good question to ask of ourselves is, “Do I really “want” to worship today”?

Next, check out how your relationships with others stand! What about your relationship with your spouse, your family, your friends, and your brothers in Christ?

I believe, that many people who go to church regularly, have not ever thought about what they do when they worship, and maybe even who it is that they are worshiping. We could resolve the question that we asked as the title of this lesson (How are we to worship), by quoting John 4:23, which says that “The hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth”, and leave it at that; however I hope that our aim is a good bit higher than that. While we are there, let’s make sure we understand what it means to ” Worship God in spirit and truth”.

Worship in Spirit and Truth, speaks of only those who are “born again believers”. True Christians, who have been quickened, and indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God are able to worship God. We cannot make up our gods, or our Christ, and we do not pursue works religion.

We know for certain that our works come after our faith, which is a gift of God in our salvation. True worship must be done by real Christians, and it is focused on the Father through the Son. I believe that we can gain much knowledge about true Worship, if we follow our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, as he is tempted by the devil, there in Matthew 4:1-11. Watch how Jesus worships the Father when the devil tempts him to turn stones into bread after Jesus had not eaten in forty days.

Jesus quoted scripture to the devil and said “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. That points us to the fact that when we worship we must come hungry, not for some covered dish or dinner on the ground; but hungry for the Words of God, the Bible.

Next, the devil tempts our Lord, by asking Jesus to tempt the Father, by throwing Himself off the temple pinnacle; and again our Lord quoted scripture, and said, “It is written, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”. That speaks to us concerning the solemnity of worship. We do not worship when we do foolish things in the name of the Lord. Then the devil tempted Jesus, by offering him all the kingdoms of the world, if Jesus would worship him, to which Jesus answered ” Away with you, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall worship”. That should tell us something about our Worship.

That means that we must know whom we worship! We must worship the God that we find revealed in the Bible, not some god that we and our group has made up to fit our lifestyles; but the Creator, the Sustainer, and Savior of all things; our Abba Father in heaven; the God whose name must be hallowed, because He alone is Omniscience, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent. The One God that manifests Himself to his creatures as three distinct personalities, Father in Heaven, the Son, Jesus Christ or God in the flesh, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Bible does not prescribe a worship pattern that we must observe; but we can discern from the scriptures that it includes service and homage, piety, our acknowledgment of Him as God, prayer, obeisance, honor, thanksgiving and praise, devotion, reverence, love, obedience, and consecration. When we speak of consecration, we mean that the worshiper must come with his or her entire heart, mind, and soul focused upon the object of its worship, which must be known. It’s obvious from the Scriptures that worship was not as we normally see it. Instead, the Apostolic method was to meet in homes as small groups who function much like families and the family of God.

We can look at First Corinthians chapter fourteen, and verse 26, and can see that all of those who attended the worship service brought something to offer to the group. All things were to be done decently and in order. There are several positions that people took when worshiping and they include but are not limited to, bowing, prostrating oneself, kneeling, and lifting holy hands.

Let?s examine some worship scriptures?? Leviticus 10:3; Exodus 34:8; Psalms 29:2; Psalms 89:7; Ecclesiastes 5:1; Psalms 63:1; Revelation 14:7; Psalms 99:5; Psalms 96:8-9; Acts 5:17-21.

As we meet to worship God, we meet as a family, and we meet to share a full meal which includes communion, to remind us of how far God has brought us from the brink of the fires of hell to the knowledge of our adoption as children of God, by the sacrifice of His sinless Son, Jesus Christ. Our worship service is participatory, everyone is free to take part, to ask questions in the course of our meeting, to offer things that are in line with our worship, things like Psalm reading, personal experience, Bible verses, and things that would be normal in a family group meeting. We do not want our meetings to become strained and distant, one from another.

Do we intend to be transparent to one another, one member?s problems become all members? problems, as we share our daily lives to be helpful. The ecclesia, (church) is made up of people who are truly saved, and who obey the Word of God that says we are to restore those who are overtaken in any trespass, but we are to bear one another’s burdens, to fulfill the law of Christ. (See Galatians 6:1-2).

The foremost point of our meetings here, in the beginning, is to learn about the Word of God, to apply it to ourselves, and to commit it to memory.
We are not interested in learning the answers until we know and understand the questions. We intend to always, as good Bereans, test every spirit and theory by asking God to reveal His truth to us. We do that by reading and knowing the Scriptures. Our goal is to be able to always pray “not my will but Thine be done.”

Psalms 29:2 exhorts us to “Give unto the Lord glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”. Bow down before the Almighty Creator of everything that we know about and much that has not even been discovered. Any man who realizes who God is, will not bring unbelief or distrust into his meeting with God. They will not come with a complaining, and murmuring spirit. Worship, at least true worship, will always bring the warmness of God’s power and love to our minds; and when we realize that we have gained access to the throne of Glory, we will know that there is no way that we can get low enough before him.

If you have read through your Bible, you will know that those who have experienced the shekinah glory of God have always fallen like dead men, and have cried out because of their uncleanness. (See Isaiah 6:1-4; 1st Kings 18:38-39; Genesis 17:1-3; Revelation 1:17). I was present at a Baptist convention at some point in time and I heard Adrian Rodgers, the late Pastor of Belleview Church in Memphis, Tenn., as he recounted a time when he felt called to worship God at a ball field; and he said that he fell on his face and did not think he was low enough, and so he dug a hole to put his nose in to get lower.

That indicates, at least, the feeling that we all should have when we worship our God. Have you ever felt like that? When you understand God and yourself, that will be something like the feeling that you will have when you worship Jehovah. When we speak of worship, we are speaking of two Anglo-Saxon words, that together mean worth-ship. Worship is bringing the praise and adoration that is due to someone worthy of it, and there is only one worthy, and that is Jehovah God.

I’m afraid that what we equate worship to in our day is simply a learned tradition of attending the local church, but is there any way that that could be all the praise our God requires? Real worship has to begin long before we go to church on Sunday or whatever day you go. Only born again children of God can worship Him, so that requires that we develop a real understanding of who God is. We must train ourselves with the power of the Holy Spirit, to be able to know when we are truly ready to worship. We will be able to come to a “can?t help it” kind of attitude and we read the word and pray and examine ourselves and repent and open ourselves to God.

That generates a purity of spirit that God requires from the people who would worship Him. Many times we will be required to do some “fence-building” before we are fit to worship. People who have ruptured relationships are commanded in the Sermon on the Mount, that “if we bring our gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave you a gift before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (See Matthew 5:23-24). Much of true worship goes on as we live daily and walk the earth. We are to give Alms, which reflects mercy and pity and compassion for those in need.

It can be food or money but must be given out of love and obedience to God through Christ. We are also to witness the love of Christ to those who do not know Him and show kindness to those who are widows and orphans. Our life is to reflect, without any shading, the love of God. We are to do whatever we do in His Name and out of our love for Him. If we were to keep these things in our minds as we read and study the Word of God and praise and thank God for His provisions for us, then we would be almost ready to go and worship God. The last and most important thing that we need to do to prepare ourselves to worship the Creator is to see Him, High and Lifted, and ourselves as worms who deserve death and hell, except for the Grace of God.

True Worship requires that our motives be holy and our hearts to be pure; and we go to God with no thought for position, power, preference, or anything other than to bow down to His holiness and Glory.

A.W.Tozer, a Pastor, evangelist, author, and Godly man, wrote that “it is possible to serve our interest with poured-out devotion. It is possible to serve the flesh even while engaged in the most intense sort of religious activities. The very fact that our activities are religious sometimes disguise the presence of the rankest kind of selfishness”. Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less.

Let’s take a moment right here and examine our selves and how we choose to Worship Our Creator. Are we doing all that is possible in our power and the power of the Holy Spirit in us to glorify Him as we open ourselves to Him in true worship? Think about your normal worship habits and then ask yourself, if you were God, would you be satisfied with it!

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob