Dover Assembly of God
We may come back to ACTS, but for now, I want to look at a subject that we Pentecostals enjoy.
It’s a subject that always sparks a discussion and much emotion.
When we have our board meetings, it is a subject that we always analyze and see how it could be better.
What do we do that is good and what could be improved.
It’s a subject that is so important, that I have several books in my office on this one item.
And that subject is . . . WORSHIP.
We know that the music portion of any service is not all there is to worship.
We worship God in our lifestyles, in our giving, and in our ministries, but the music aspect of worship is an integral part of worship.
Let’s start at the beginning to see the importance of worship. Back in Exodus 20, God gives the Israelites the 10 commandments.
The 10 rules by which they were to live their lives.
What was the very first one?
Exodus 20:3 NLT
God was just starting out with these people and the very first thing he commands them is to not worship anything else.
You would think that there would be many other things that God could lead off with. But I believe it being the very first one is telling them and us, that worship is a paramount thing for God.
Then we have the next commandment.
Exodus 20:4-5 NLT
He almost repeats himself and stresses that worship should be directed to him alone.
So it appears that worship is important.
Now let’s look at how Israel set up their camps in the wilderness.
God had the place 3 tribes in all directions. 3 facing north, 3 facing south, 3 facing east and 3 facing west.
Do we remember what was directly in the middle of those camps?
Numbers 2:2 NLT
The place where Israel worshiped was in the center of their camps.
The book “Empowered Evangelicals” says this about that placement:
“God wanted them to know that the very center of their lives was worship. Life around the nation of Israel was to evolve around the worship of God.”
Peter says this about us . . .
1 Peter 2:9 NIV
A large portion of Revelation talks about how we and angels will be worshiping God.
Revelation 4:10 NIV
Revelation 5:13 NIV
If you know any Catechism, you’ll be familiar with the Westminster sentence that says this:
“The Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”
Charles Stanley says this:
"Is there anything God needs? Is there anything he cannot provide for himself? NO. Can you name the one thing that God wants from us above all else? He wants us to worship Him.”
Jesus said this about worship . . .
John 4:23-24 NIV
Since we now know that worship is a priority with God, what does this sentence mean?
To be “in spirit” means engaging the whole person.
Unless there is a real passion for Christ, there cannot be worshiping in spirit.
That goes back to Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV
Jesus actually repeats and expands this . . .
Mark 12:29-30 NIV
To worship involves us being fully engaged. It can’t be just an automatic thing or something that we do because we are familiar with it.
When we sing and worship, our heart, soul, mind and strength should be entering into it.
When that happens, it should provoke an emotional response in our hearts, but Jesus uses the terms spirit AND truth.
We must have an intimate understanding of the God whom we are worshiping.
It is possible to have an emotional response and lift our hands etc, but not have truth behind what we are doing.
Spirit without truth leads to a shallow and overly emotional experience like a “high”. As soon as the emotion wears off, so does the worship.
There must be an equal amount of both, spirit and truth to be satisfying and God honoring.
We mentioned earlier that singing isn’t the only way to worship.
But when we study the word “worship” we find out it is an action word.
The Hebrew term for worship literally means “to bow self down”
The Greek means “to kiss towards” (to blow a kiss).
Worship is not a passive word, it’s not something that we do passively. Worship requires an action on our part.
Numerous times the word worship is preceded by the words “fell down, falling down, feel to the ground”.
Worship originates from the heart but it can’t only BE heart. Heart is passive.
Music leads you, but you take it from there.
There’s a phrase in the Old Testament . . .
2 Chronicles 25:1-2 NIV
It seems he did the right things but only half-way.
You’ll find in that same chapter, just a few verses after this, he totally backslides and sins against God, worships idols.
We can sing the songs, raise our hands, but if we do it half-heartedly, we are not truly worshipping.
If we let worship become mechanical and not truly from spirit and truth, we will no longer be worshiping, just singing.
Amos was a book about God judging sin in both surrounding nations and Judah & Israel.
They had perverted justice and righteousness.
In other words, they were worshiping without living righteous.
Amos 5:21-24 NLT
If we think that simply singing songs is enough, then we are mistaken.
God requires worship to be accompanied by a righteous life.
How can we worship in spirit and truth if we don’t live the truth that we know.
Instead, we worship because we know all that God is and has done for us and we are grateful.
Hebrews 12:28 NLT
