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Topical on Worship given Wednesday April 3, 2024
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Topical on Worship given Wednesday April 3, 2024
We want to talk about worship for the next couple weeks. So I did my best. I did my best now, but it's actually pretty cool. Let's pray, god. Thank you again for this time, and I feel like worship is one of those things that we know we ought to do, and it makes good sense that we worship you, and yet we just don't get it. I feel like there's something that we're distracted by in so many different ways. So, god, I just pray in a very simple way. You would just give us insight tonight into what it means to worship you Just a little bit more. God, open our hearts, our heads, our eyes, whatever. It is, god, that we would see what you want us to see and hear what you want us to hear. Tonight we pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen, all right. Well, so it's topical for maybe a couple weeks and you know, it just seems like some of the most important things in the Christian life are some of the most confusing things. Prayer, I've said way too many times, one of the most important things, and I just know somehow I'm missing something when it comes to prayer, because maybe I don't crave it, maybe I don't do it like I ought to. Something seems to be missing.
Speaker 1:Fellowship, I think, is another thing. Wednesday nights, I think this is a great picture of fellowship, but you know, we do a lot of fellowship in the church fun, food and fellowship, you know, but yet really coming together and encouraging each other in our relationship with the Lord, having Jesus at the center, I think we miss it so many times in the church when it comes to fellowship. A lot of things qualify as fellowship, but worship, I think, is one of those basic Christian things, and yet there's some part of it that I must not understand, because, you know, sometimes we're into worship, you know, sometimes we're not into worship. Some of us say, well, I love to spend time in worship, and others would say, well, it's just not really my thing, you know. And yet worship is, you know, one of those hugely important things in the Christian life. And I thought we would start here by considering a picture of heaven we get in Revelation 6. There's so much more you could read about this, but Revelation 4.6 gives us a clear picture of what it's like in heaven, and it says this John sees this and he says Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal, in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes, in front and in back.
Speaker 1:The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had the face of a man and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes, around and within. Pretty strange stuff there, interesting creatures, and they do not rest day or night saying Holy, holy, holy Lord, god Almighty, who was and is and is to come Whenever. The living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him, who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever there's 24 elders and they fall down before him. Who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying you are worthy, o Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. So a little snapshot of heaven here. And there's a throne, god the Father most definitely sitting on that throne. There's these living creatures, these angels, full of eyes all around. Whatever.
Speaker 1:John did his best to explain what they looked like, but they're strange. But notice, they're worshiping 24-7, verse 8. They don't rest day or night from saying holy, holy, holy. So 24-7, these creatures are worshiping. Now it's not in song, it's in saying there, but it's worship 24-7. And then, every time they put out their worship of holy, holy, holy, 24 elders. These are people hard to pinpoint who they might be, but whenever the angels cry out, the elders cry out worthy are you, o Lord? So they respond with worship, now, 24-7. They do this Now.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's to say that heaven will just be worship. I mean God can change our hearts. Maybe, when we don't have our flesh, we'll be like way into that 24-7 for all eternity. When we see clearly what God's done for us, maybe that's what we will want to do. I kind of think there's more to heaven than just that. Maybe I'll be wrong, we'll see. But the thing here, though, is worship's a big deal in heaven. It's a huge deal. It's what goes on, and worship obviously should be part of our life here as well. A couple of reasons. Let's just we'll probably just next couple of studies go through the why, how, when, what of worship.
Speaker 1:But why worship?
Speaker 1:Number one it just makes sense because of who God is.
Speaker 1:It's kind of what we see here in heaven. It just makes good sense. They see how holy God is, they see how worthy he is and they just worship. And it makes sense there in Psalm 95 is when I have written down 95, verse 2 and 3, let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms 4. There's the why, I guess, for the Lord is a great God and great King above all gods. So, in line with how great God is, worship just makes perfect sense. Is worship just makes perfect sense. We worship Him for who he is and what he's done. Romans 12.1. We went over not that long ago, but this is how the New Living Translation reads of Romans 12.1. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you give your bodies to God because of all he's done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind you will find acceptable. And this is the part to kind of zero in on. This is truly the way to worship him. So, in light of all that God's done, it just makes real good sense that we worship him, and giving our lives is what worship ought to look like. But it makes sense.
Speaker 1:Number two it's commanded, psalm 29.2,. Psalm simply says Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, so command, worship the Lord. Even the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments really have to do with our relationship with God. Right, the first one have no other gods. So in other words, have God. You know, see God, don't make any carved or graven images to bow down to. Well, the opposite of that is because we ought to be bowing down, commanded to bow down to God alone. Don't take his name in vain, but make his name great. Right Would be a response to that. To glorify him, magnify him, remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. That's worshiping God with your time, and you know. So, really, worship is commanded.
Speaker 1:But then, third reason, probably the least of the reasons, but we look at those who don't worship the end of the book, the book of Revelation, chapter 9, verse 20. After all these things that have gone on, these plagues in Revelation, chapter 9, verse 20, the world's falling apart. It says this, though, but the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold. So, after all, god's, you know, trying to get their attention really through these judgments. He gives them lots of time to repent. They wouldn't repent and they continue just to not worship God but worship demons and still idols of gold. Now, obviously it looks a little differently, probably in the modern day, worshiping idols of gold, but we do it and so it just makes sense to worship God. It's commanded and to not worship God really puts us in the place of the unbeliever here in the end of the book in Revelation, which is no good.
Speaker 1:So why worship? You can kind of think about those things. There's lots of other reasons, but those are some. But what is worship? And that's kind of just the rest I want to look at. I don't want to get too far away in this, but what is worship? Deep breath, what is worship? At least 22 different words in the Bible. Just picture that. There's 22 different words in the Bible 12 in the Old Testament and 10 in the New Testament that relate to the idea of worship. So when we say worship we just kind of broadly put it out there worship. In the Bible there's at least 22 different words that describe this idea of worship, from praise to thanksgiving, to glorifying, to serving, magnifying In. So the idea of worship means a lot of different things, but one thing to settle at the beginning of this is that worship is absolutely more than just song.
Speaker 1:A lot of times we think about worship as that time before the Bible study. You know, in certain places, you know, the lights are dimmed. The music starts. We like it with acoustic guitar. Perhaps Other people do worship with an organ or something like that. But when you look at the idea of worship, the easiest thing you can really see is that worship is a lot more than music. It can be with music We'll look at that another time but worship is definitely not that. In fact, there's very few of the words that really deal with musical worship.
Speaker 1:Worship involves the whole life. That's important to see when you talk about worship, worship is our whole life. And when we finish this, if I carry through with what I'm thinking, I'd like to go through the book of ezra, because it makes good sense after daniel. But it involves, uh, the rebuilding of the place of worship, the temple, and there's a lot of great pictures there of of worship in our lives and the rebuilding of the temple. So that's maybe in a couple of weeks we'll start the book of Ezra.
Speaker 1:But what is worship? Let's look at a few of these words. The first one we find is in Genesis 22.5. You can turn there. We're not going to read the whole account, but 22.5, it's the first mention in the context of worship. Now, that's not to say that worship didn't happen before Genesis 22.5, because Abel and Cain definitely had an issue with worship and sacrifice. They were doing it. They were worshiping God through sacrifice, noah, he worshiped after the flood with sacrifices. But this is the first mention in our Bibles of the actual word worship.
Speaker 1:Genesis 22, verse 5. And you know the story. It's Abraham and Isaac there. God comes to Abraham and just one day out of lots of days, god comes to Abraham, I think I said. And he says in the morning, it seems like just one day. He says verse 2, 22, verse 2, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you, as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you. And so Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son. They split the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place which God had told him. So a big thing in Abraham's life. Here God says this son that you've been waiting for whom you love. I want you to now take him to this place that I will show you Three days journey, it seems, and I want you to offer him as an offering there, a sacrifice there, huge deal. And Abraham does it. We read in verse four. Then, on the third day, abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place so far off. And Abraham said to his young men there were two of them. Right, stay here with the donkey, the lad, isaac and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you.
Speaker 1:So this is the first time, in our English Bible at least, that this word worship appears, and worship like this in this context, worship. So there's an idea. When you read the Bible called the law of first mention. It just really says the first time you see something is pretty significant. It just really says the first time you see something is pretty significant. So the first time this idea of worship appears is right here and we ought to kind of just notice. Well, how does it appear? What appears is Abraham tells his men we're going to go and worship.
Speaker 1:I don't think that was just a smoke screen, right? What are you going to do, abraham? Well, I'm going to go kill my son. Well, no, no, no, we're going to worship. You know what I mean? I think that that's really what he was intending to do. I don't know if he knew how it was going to end exactly. I mean, we're told later that he had this faith that God would be true to his promise, that Isaac would be the one, even if God had to raise him from the dead. But here it's worship. As Abraham says, I'm going to take my son, like God told me, to, I'm going to offer him as a sacrifice. This is worship. And that's a pretty big idea of worship, because Abraham has given it all. And in the end, abraham becomes a great picture of what God, the Father, would do, that the Father would offer his only son as a sacrifice, a willing sacrifice. The son would lay down his life. And it's this huge picture here.
Speaker 1:Now, the word here worship, is one we'll look at in a second. It's shakah and it means to bow down low. So this word worship here to bow down low with your face to the ground is what Abraham is looking to do. That's the first mention. Now, again, I think there's like 12, did I say 12 words in the Old Testament of worship. We're not going to look at all of them at all, like two or three in the Old Testament, but let's look at a couple of these words here. The first one there is shekah that we just mentioned, and it's 172 times in the Old Testament. So get it in perspective 172 times when you see the word worship or bow, that's what it means to bow with your face to the ground. Interesting, it's the position of the body.
Speaker 1:You know we don't generally do a lot of bowing in the Christian church. Some churches do. Now the Muslims, they bow quite a bit three times a day and you got to give them maybe you don't have to give them points for anything but for being determined and dedicated. They bow three times a day, just like this, with their face to the ground. But that's what this word means.
Speaker 1:Now, god looks at the heart and I think that's what we bring into it a lot when we look at these ideas of bowing. Well, god sees my heart, and very true, I think you could be bowing with your face to the ground and be thinking about a cheeseburger. I mean, your heart can be a million miles away. If it were me and I were bowing to the ground, I'd probably be thinking about how much my knees hurt. It's probably about what I would. That's one of the big reasons why I don't do it.
Speaker 1:But even though God looks at our heart and that's a huge part of worship where's our heart? Bowing's not a bad idea. I think we've all probably had times in our life where we've gone through just something that just attacks you like mad and you lose your breath. It's so bad. And you know, sometimes you really do find yourself at those points like really kneeling beside the bed or down on your face, and it's totally instinctive. At that point, right, you know, you're just like I am, so just I don't even know what to say or do and you're down and there's something to be said about the position of our bodies.
Speaker 1:We spend most of our time in the Christian church just like this. Right, maybe it's an encouragement, since so many of these words have to do with the position of our bodies, but this word means to bow Moses. When God passed by, moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Joshua meets the captain of the Lord's hosts, presumably Jesus' pre-manger, and he bows with his face to the ground there in the dirt. So that's Shekau and that's probably one of the most common words for worship. This one is also common, maybe even a little more common. The word is Barak like Obama. Barak like Obama, and it means to kneel. 330 times it's used, so it's even a lot more popular than even Shekaw, but it means to kneel, maybe not quite as intense as Shekaw. It's acceptable and it's usually translated bless. So that's an interesting one to look at.
Speaker 1:To bless Psalm 103, verse 1 and 2. Bless the Lord, o my soul and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not His benefits. So the idea of blessing the Lord with our words. God blessed us. Throughout the Bible we see times where God has blessed us. He blessed Adam and said be fruitful and multiply. He blessed Noah after the flood. But we can bless the Lord, we can praise the Lord, bless his name to realize that he's good and he's totally righteous. We bless God.
Speaker 1:The last one here in the Old Testament just to give us another taste of worship. Here is Zamar, us another taste of worship. Here is zamar. It's like Lamar with a Z, but I mean this is all Hebrew, it's not in our letters, but it means to praise with strings. So the reason I bring this one up is because this word actually means to praise with strings, with music, and it is found 46 times.
Speaker 1:So I just think it's interesting to see that music and that kind of worship definitely a thing. Right, here's Psalm 144, verse 9. I will sing a new song to you, o God, on a harp of ten strings. I will sing praises to you. So musical worship is most definitely a thing and we'll talk about it. It's just funny how we're wired that music is a very emotional thing. Regardless of what music is, it can play on us one way or another, can change the way we feel.
Speaker 1:But only 46 times in the Bible is this idea of praise connected to musical worship. Doesn't mean we shouldn't do musical worship, but I think the thing to see here is that worship involves a lot more than just singing songs. I think maybe that's why we're kind of bored by the idea. Sometimes that's pretty harsh. But you know we just aren't that excited because, well, I'm not into that kind of music, harsh. But you know we just aren't that excited because, well, I'm not into that kind of music. You know, I'm not into that kind of stuff. And yet worship is our whole life, it's our actions, it's even how we put our bodies in worship to God. And so that's the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:Let's look at the New Testament for just a couple minutes here. New Testament, at least 10 words. Couple minutes here. New Testament, at least 10 words. And instead of Hebrew we're now in the Greek. Just as a reminder, one word that you see in the New Testament is doxazo. You're so excited to get all these foreign words Doxazo right.
Speaker 1:It's where we get the idea of a doxology right. What is doxology? Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. It's a good song, it's a good one, but it means to glorify. So doxazo, to glorify, to ascribe, glory, honor and praise. It's the general response that people had when Jesus performed miracles or when he taught. It says the people glorified God when they saw these things. It's that word, doxazo. It's the response of the shepherds in Luke, chapter two, when they saw the angels and when they came and saw Mary and Joseph and all these things came together and they're like we're a part of the Messiah being born, wow, and they glorified God. We see it in the negative. Think about this one for a second In Romans, chapter 1, verse 18.
Speaker 1:I guess we could turn there. We probably need to turn more or more closer. Romans, chapter 1, romans, chapter 1, verse 18, says this Paul's going through his proofs here that people have in creational. It says so, as you look around at creation, it's obvious that this didn't just happen. It's ridiculous to think that, oh, what a beautiful planet, what a wonderful system. Everything works together. Big Bang created this. That's ridiculous, right. And so he says it's impossible. When it's clearly seen, when they look at it, the things that are made God's eternal power and Godhead, so they're without excuse because, although they so, here's the other side of this word. You can glorify God for all he's done and admit, well, this was God, what a wonderful thing this is, or you can deny it and not. You can glorify God for all he's done and admit, well, this was God, what a wonderful thing this is, or you can deny it and not glorify God. So that's the negative there.
Speaker 1:The response, though this word is really a response to what God's done 1 Corinthians 6, 19,. I think a verse that we'll probably back to you next week and even in the book of Ezra, 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Easily turn there, because it's close Next book over 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought at a price, cross, right? Therefore, in light of that, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which belong to God, which are God's. So this idea of doxazo glorifying, this idea of doxazo glorifying it, is a response to a response there to what God has done. In light of everything God's done, glorify, worship God in your body, in your actions.
Speaker 1:More words we could look at in the New Testament, but one last one. It's proskuneo. You can buy your friends with these words. Proskuneo, right, it means to turn and kiss, and we usually translate it worship.
Speaker 1:The biggest way that this was seen because this is a Greek word, right, the biggest way that this was actually seen was the way people would treat and greet the king. Proskuneo was actually like almost a ceremony when you'd meet the king and you could picture it right, Even royalty. Nowadays they get the whole thing where you kneel down and you kiss the king's hand right, or the Pope why, right? And yet that's this idea the Greek kings, they got it from the Persians and the idea was that you thought of your king like God, you know, and you would kiss him, you would humble yourself and get down. If you were really going for it, you'd probably kiss their feet, right. Humility and really worship. I mean, that's what it was, worship, and that's where this idea came from. It actually was the name of that ceremony to turn and kiss to greet the king.
Speaker 1:But we see here at the same time, there's a possibility for this being more personal Turning and kissing, you know, I mean some countries they greet, you know, friends with a kiss. But you know we don't do that. You know you only kiss people that you're really familiar with, right? If not, people think you're really strange. But it's a personal thing, it's a relationship thing. It's kind of like, you know, when I really stopped and considered what Jesus said about prayer Pray like this, our Father, and how personal that is, that God would want to be like a dad to us, like a father to us that we could call Abba, right, daddy, and that's a personal thing in worship that God wants. So those are two ways, but the last way that this word was used, you know, maybe it's not that spectacular to you, but I've been learning this lesson for a while now.
Speaker 1:We have seven dogs and I always come in and I tell Lila what I've learned about worship by these dogs, because this word proskuneo could actually be the way a dog licks his master's hand and you're like so what? Seven dogs? You experience this and as a dad, it's your job to be the dog's best friend. I mean, they're like your, they adore you most of the time, you know, and there you're, walking along the path. I'm walking every day along the path and one dog still doesn't get it. She just like bites me on my hand every time she goes by.
Speaker 1:She's terrible, but the ones that I really have this relationship, smokey, my dog, smokey man, you walk along and he comes up and he just looks at you with those eyes those eyes, you know and and just pet me please, you know, but this is where it comes in. It's almost uncontrollable, right? You're standing there and they just like turn and it's like they don't even know what they're doing, they just can't help it. And they look at you like I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself, you know, and they just, and they lick your hand, you know, and, and you know, when it's the dog that you love, you're like that's okay Anytime. That you love you're like that's okay Anytime. I'll cherish it, you know, and it's like it is worship.
Speaker 1:I mean, the Greeks looked at it and said, well, I may not be king, but that's worship to me, you know, and I've so many times stopped, this one speaks to me more than anything and I go God, you're the master and I'm just a dog and I just adore you, you know, and isn't that the way I think worship should really be? Is just totally spontaneous. I mean, they have no idea what they're doing. When they lick your hand, I don't think maybe it's assault, I don't know. But you know they have no idea, they just can't help themselves. But isn't that the way worship should be?
Speaker 1:That, you know, in our day, we're just going through the day and we go God, I can't believe you took care of that thing in my life and I just can't believe that you took me from where I was to where I am now. God, I can't believe you were so patient with me through all these things and you, just in the middle of your day, you stop and you go. My family, you know, my wife, you just go. God. Why are you so good to me? And you just worship. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And it's spontaneous, it's the best stuff. You go for a walk and you look at the trees now, you know and you just go, god. I have no idea why you made this stuff good. You know, why did you make life so beautiful? Sometimes, oh, it's hard, but, god, you're with me then too, and I think this word for worship to turn and kiss is probably one of the best ways to look at worship. Just totally, you're not planning it. You're not like seven o'clock tonight I'm going to have a time of worship. You're just going through life and you go God. Why are you so good, god? Why you love me like this? I'm such a mess up, why, and you just go God. You're just good Wherever you're at, whatever you're doing, and that, I think, is the essence of worship.
Speaker 1:It's through the life, it's through music. Sure, it's glorifying God for what he's done. It's just spontaneous love relationship with God. Worship definitely involves the heart and we'll look at it more, but just some good things to think about opportunities to worship all through our lives. So, god, thank you for being so good to us. I just want to thank you for these friends and this time that we get to have so simply and so easily God, just to consider your word and enjoy each other's company, and that's good. God, you're good and we just want to thank you together for all you've done, for all you are in our lives. God, thank you for being so good. I just pray for my friends, for myself, that we would have hearts to worship you. It would be turned towards you in such a natural way this week. God, we love you and we thank you.