In Your Bible Read This
Revelation chapters 4 and 5

Here Is Your Memory Verse
Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water.
I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or
be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. Exodus 23,25-26

Afterwards Talk About This
What are some of the idols and false gods that people tend
to serve today which makes God jealous and angry?

Something To Do Before Next Time
Arrange an evening which will be exclusively devoted to worshipping God,
using as many of the different ways as possible. Look for and choose
anointed people to participate and make God very happy
with a symphony of praise and worship.

Written Diploma Work
Make a list of as many different verses as you find in the Psalms
which refer to the ways they worshipped God.

Meditate Word By Word On This Passage
Ephesians 5, 19-20

Spend a Minute to Change the World

Pray For Albania - Just 3,500,000 Europeans

Once the world’s first atheist state now devastated by anarchy and refugees

Now it will be either the gospel or Islam that becomes dominant.

 

Be sure to teach this lesson to others.

Always pray and prepare well adding

 your own verses and stories to bring it to life.

 

Man is essentially a worshipping creature. It is part of his nature. The only question is who he will worship? Whatever we worship we ultimately end up serving. The more we worship something or someone, the more our commitment increases, and the more we become like the thing we worship.

1. What Does It Mean To Worship?

The Hebrew word is shachah which means to worship, bow down, do obeisance, give reverence or fall down. The New Testament word proskuneo similarly means to kiss the hand or to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead in profound reverence. Two other worship words mean to physically serve, to perform sacred service and to offer gifts to God.

2. Let My People Go, So That They May Worship Me

This was God’s repeated demand to Pharaoh which led to the exodus of God’s people from Egypt. Since then God, who is a jealous God, has fought with his people to keep them from worshipping other gods and idols rather than worshipping the one true living God.

Worship is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. God actively seeks worshippers and to worship is our first calling, see John 4.23. True worship is when we allow Holy Spirit to draw adoration from our spirit, or heart and leads us to worship in spirit and in truth. See Phil. 3.3

Worship is priceless and uniquely belongs to God and to his Son Jesus Christ who alone are worthy. Lucifer, who was in charge of the worship in heaven, wanted that worship for himself and that led to his downfall. Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28. He even offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship but the Lord refused, of course. Matthew 4.8-10

3. Worship Fills The Room With God

In Bible times lots of men and women were anointed by God and appointed by leaders to lead the people of God of those ancient days into prophetic worship not just the singing of songs as we often do today in our meetings. 1 Chron. 25,1; 6-8.

Worship prepares the way for God to come and for salvation to fill your life, see Psalms 22.3; 50.23. Children’s worship even silences the enemy, see Psalm 8:2.

4. I Will Bless The Lord At All Times

When do we worship? At all times. For set times of worship Psalm 100 tells how to begin, but above all our personal lives should be never ending worship. Every breath we breathe, every thought, word and action should be worship to the good God we serve, for ever and ever, see Psalm 145.1,2.

5. Worship, Past Present And Future

Men first began to call on the name of the Lord in prehistory. When Abram was going to the Promised Land the first thing he did was to build an altar of worship wherever he went. See Gen. 4.26; 12.6.

In days gone by God’s people worshipped in Temple and synagogue but these days our bodies are God’s temple, 1 Cor. 6.19. This means we can worship without waiting, wherever we are, whatever the circumstances. Paul and Silas even worshipped in prison, Acts 16.25.

But our worship on earth only reflects the worship in heaven. You must read the glorious chapters 4, 5 and 19, 1-10 of Revelation and see how worship in heaven is full of colour, light, sound, motion, and activity. Our worship should aim to be just the same.

6. How Do We Worship?

The Bible tells us how people used their hearts, minds, arms, hands, feet and lips in songs. They shouted for joy with bowing down, dance, praise, blessing and thanksgiving.

Words from the Psalms like halal or hallelujah mean to praise, boast of and celebrate the Lord. Yadah means to throw out the hands, and barak means to kneel in worship to bless God.

The offering of our bodies for the service of God and man is also worship, see Romans 12,1. God’s people also worship him in their art, sculpture, writing, drama, music and architecture as well as in giving their money for the gospel.

7. Worship In Church

In church our meetings should be full of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs which can be led by the Spirit in new languages that he gives. So many modern meetings are no more than platform led Christian entertainment, not very different from the theatre. People merely watch but do they worship? The presence of God and the manifestation of his Spirit in our worship should cause unbelievers to fall down and worship. Col 3.16, 1 Cor. 14, 15-16; 25; 26, Eph. 5.19, Acts 2.4.

Is Praise The Same As Worship?
We need to praise God for all he is and does, but God seeks out and needs worshippers, not just worship.

Praise can be very public but worship is always intimate.
Praise is always seen or heard, worship can be quiet and hidden.
Praise is often expressive, exuberant and aggressive,
whilst worship is often awe in the presence of God.

8. True Worship Is Costly

The Bible talks about sacrifices of praise. David danced before the Lord with all his might, and refused to offer God a sacrifice which cost him nothing, 2 Samuel 6,14, 24.24. Wise men from the east offered costly gifts as they came to worship Jesus, see Matthew 2:9-12, and a woman anointed Jesus with expensive perfume, washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, see Luke 7:36-50.