1-20-19 Worship Sub Plan

Due to winter weather we canceled services at the church building and these are the notes from what I did as part of a live stream online.

W O R S H I P     D E F I N E D

“The Tradition of Assembly” READ: p6

What is worship?

the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.

"the worship of God"

reverence, veneration, adoration, devotion, praise, thanksgiving, glorifying, exalting, extolling homage, respect, honor, As a child I knew nothing about worship. I did not attend church regularly. I went to a Methodist church a few times but that was talked about as going to church or going to Sunday School. No one ever said we were going to worship. I did not grow up in a Christian home, not did I grow up in an anti-Christian home. There were no symbols in our home or talk of Christ and Christianity but there was also never anything said in a bad way about Christ or the Church. The very first time I worshipped, I was not told how - it just happened. I was at a Christian concert in high school and I did not worship through the evening during the singing or the preaching. It was not until the very end - when I was invited to give my heart - my life to Jesus. I was invited to put my trust in him to forgive me of my sins and one day get me to heaven. It was when I got up and started walking down that isle that I worshipped for the first time in my life. For me worship came when I encountered the living God in Christ. I was overwhelmed that God - the creator of all things would come to me personally and let me know how much I was loved and in that first moment of belief was also my first moment of thanksgiving and praise. It was recognizing not just what God had done on the cross 2000 years ago but what he was doing in that moment for me. In two weeks I will share more about worship being that point of intersection when God’s act and our act meet and in that moment of meeting, there is worship. I would be curious to here how you describe worship. Leave a comment with a sentence or two of how you describe worship Robert Webber describes worship as a verb. “Worship has been misunderstood as something that arises from a feeling which ‘comes upon you,’ but it is vital that we understand that it is rooted in a conscious act of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.”—Graham Kendrick

It is the pleasing of God that is at the heart of worship. Therefore, our worship must be informed at every point by the Word of God as we seek God’s own instructions for worship that is pleasing to Him.”—R.C. Sproul

"The whole person, with all his senses, with both mind and body, needs to be
involved in genuine worship."  Jerry Kerns 

"When I worship, I would rather my heart be without words than my words be without
heart."
Lamar Boschman

“Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father.”
Richard J. Foster 

READ RESPONSES

There are so many great verses of Scripture about worship, not to mention acts of worship. The bible is a storehouse of instruction and example for worship.

Here are just a couple:

Psalms 8:1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Psalms 29:2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.

Psalms 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

Psalms 99:5 Exalt the LORD our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!

John 4:21-24 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Today many had a good reason to stay home and be safe - next week let’s have NO EXCUSES and come together for a fun and joy-filled time of worship.