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Review
In the last two weeks we have looked at the who’s of worship (Who God is, Who we are). We have seen that God longs and desires for full redemption of His creation. The Bible says the “heavens groans in anticipation”. (Rom. 8:23-25) God desires to commune in holy relationship with His people through the sacrificial love of His Son and the fulfillment of His ultimate mission, our eternal worship of Him. We have seen that we do not worship as an activity (though it is one) but we are worshipers with every breath we take. (Ps. 150:6) We briefly looked at some examples of acceptable and unacceptable worship and we see that we are just as easily prone to error as our ancestors.
For the next two weeks we are going to start to look at the how. In the formation of worship we must look at how to actually approach God. In doing this there are parts or elements of worship that are key to an encounter with God. In the Old Testament God prescribes worship very specifically. With great care and craftsmanship He instructed His people how to approach Him.
In the New Testament, we are under the law of Grace. But lest we think that grace and liberty in Christ comes without form we must again search the Scriptures for our answers. Our understanding of worship depends on biblical formation.
We have formed over hundreds of years of gathering many traditions, forms, and sensitivities to how worship is formed and how it is applied to our lives. Some of these things have been well implemented and biblically sound and some have become mere rituals that we perform and fool ourselves into thinking they are authentic worship. Let’s strip all that out and look at the core elements of worship outlined in the Scriptures.
Praise
praise |prāz| verb [ with obj.]
- express one’s respect and gratitude toward (a deity), esp. in song: we praise God for past blessings.
- Amplified: the consuming desire to express admiration and joyous gratitude to God.
Praise goes way beyond a textbook definition of mere gratitude, though it begins there. It lies deep in our heart and emanates from there into outward expressions for God’s glory. We must remember that to praise, like the other elements we are discussing, are not optional, they are commanded in Scripture and an integral part of being a worshiper.
Four Ways We Praise
- With Your Heart (Ps. 86:12, Eph. 5:19)
- With Your Voice/Instruments (Ps. 47:1, Ps. 98:4, 104:33, Acts 16:25, Matt. 26:30, Ps. 119:171)
- With Your Body (Ps. 134, Ps. 103, 2 Sam. 6:4, Ps. 30:11, Rom 12:1-2)
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
2 Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!
- With your life (Ps. 35:10, Ps. 119:75, Phil 1:27-30, Phil 2)
Prayer
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ”
― John Bunyan
“The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So
is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine
working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there,
one of die first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer!
–Charles Haddon Spurgeon”
Collective Celebration
- Thanksgiving, Adoration, Gratitude (Ezra 3:11, Ps 30:4 [emphatic], Phil. 4:6)
Collective Repentance
- Collective Sin (1 Chr 7:14)
- Individual Sin (Prov. 28:13-Negative Example, Psalm 24:3-4, 1 Corinthians 11:26-29)
Collective Intercession/Supplication (Luke 18:1)
“Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.” – Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest
- Privilege
- Most Like Christ (Heb 7:35, Rom 8:34)
- Is Work of Holy Spirit (Romans 8)
Ordinance
Baptism (Modes & Meaning)
- Symbolism and Meaning (John 1:29-34)
- Modes: Immersion & Pedo-Baptism (Sprinkling)
- Call to Evangelism
Lord’s Supper (Communion)
- Frequency – “But as often”
- Elements – more than bread and crackers, rich in meaning, not Transubstantiation but more than a empty ritual.
- Warnings – 1 Cor. 11
- Remember that it’s okay to abstain from the Lord’s table. Do not bow to some sort of peer pressure or fear of man to think that not partaking in the table makes you less “spiritual”. It indicates the seriousness by which you take the Lord’s death and his call to celebrate in that death and resurrection.
Question:
What is essential and what is optional in our worship service? Meaning, what things do we do in worship that may or may not be prescribed and how can they be good and how can they at times be distracting to true worship? Also, in your private worship what distractions can creep in there?
Closing
In closing I would like to issue a challenge. We’re going to hand out a sheet of paper, on that paper is an opportunity. I want to invite you to be a part of what it means to lead in worship here. I have put together a sheet that shows the items to be considered in planning a worship service. I would like you to bring these back in two weeks with your outline of a worship service. You can work in groups if you wish and plan together. We will put these together and talk about them on week 6. If the opportunity arises we may use the service in the near future.