What Is Worship?
- Worship is the highest kind of prayer.
John 4:23 NKJV But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
- Worship is to love God.
Deuteronomy 11:1 NKJV “Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.
Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV (37) Jesus said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The greatest thing that you can do is love God. We think the greatest thing is to serve God but if you love Him, you will serve Him but if you don’t love Him, you won’t serve Him. The way to serve God begins with loving God.
- Worship is love expressed.
Love must be expressed.
If you are married and you never express your love, your marriage is in trouble. You keep that love alive by expressing that love.
We are the only beings on earth that can communicate heart to heart.
Worship is love communicated. It is you communicating your love to God and God communicating His love to you.
You were created to receive God’s love and give God’s love back to Him. No other being in creation was created to do this.
Why Do We Worship?
Deuteronomy 31:1-2 NKJV (1) Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. (2) And he said to them: “I am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’
Moses knew that his time of leadership was over because he could no longer come in and go out and could not lead the people to do the same thing.
Joshua 14:11 NKJV (11) As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.
Coming in and going out were warfare terms. You came in from war and you went out to war. A leader needed to know how to lead the people to come in from war and how to lead them out for war.
Coming In – You come in to the Presence of God so that you can be refreshed and refilled from war.
Going Out – You go out from the Presence of the Lord to make a difference for His Kingdom.
We say it this way because the entire purpose of warfare in the Old Testament was to establish that God was the one, true and living God.
God used the smallest nation in existence at that time to establish His Name throughout the entire world by making them the strongest through His supernatural help and strength.
His heart is for the world and He chose Israel to be the light in the world.
We are in a war in life and we need to learn how to come in and how to go out.
- Let’s learn to come IN to the Presence of God.
Acts 3:19 AMP So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord;
Matthew 11:28-29 AMP Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer. 6:16.]
Ezekiel 46:9 NKJV (9) “But when the people of the land come before the LORD on the appointed feast days, whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate; and whoever enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. He shall not return by way of the gate through which he came, but shall go out through the opposite gate.
- Whoever comes in to worship one way should go out another way.
God is saying, “When you come into My Presence, you should leave differently than when you came in.”
It is possible to attend church physically and not attend church spiritually. It is possible to be here in body and not in spirit.
If you ever come to church burdened and you leave burdened, you didn’t come to church.
If you bring burdens to church with you (and you should), and you do not leave them here, you have not attended church. You have not worshipped God and have not entered His presence.
In His presence, He takes our burdens. This is not just at church but also in our daily lives taking time to worship God in your quiet time with Him.
- Let’s learn to go out WITH the Presence of God.
Ezekiel 46:10 NKJV (10) The prince shall then be in their midst. When they go in, he shall go in; and when they go out, he shall go out.
The Presence of God is what makes us different from any other organization.
- The beauty of church is that God’s Presence goes with you when you leave.