THE LANGUAGE OF WORSHIP
Summer Sermon Series: Growing in Worship
Rev. Kevin L. Baker
INTRO
Deeply immersed in meditation during a church service, Italian poet Dante Alighieri failed to kneel at the appropriate moment. His enemies hurried to the bishop and demanded that Dante be punished for his sacrilege. Dante defended himself by saying, “If those who accuse me had had their eyes and minds on God, as I had, they too would have failed to notice events around them, and they most certainly would not have noticed what I was doing.”
· That was my first real experience of worship after I was born again. The first time I went to church I was looking around at what everyone else was dong because I had no idea what worship was.
· After awhile, I got to the point of what Dante was saying here—after awhile you get to the point that you learn what worship is and are focused on God, so you really do not notice what others are doing, or worry about what they think of your singing and praising God.
· Today’s message begins our summer sermon series. Last year, I preached seven sermons from seven chapters of Joshua over seven weeks.
· This year, I want to spend some time on learning what it means to worship God, which is why we come here each week.
· In coming weeks, we will learn to become worshipers by speaking the language of worship; we will learn the difference between a worship service and an evangelistic service and why the 2000 year history of liturgical worship is truly worship over and against the 150 year old revival style church service; we will be learning how to enter the presence of God, we will walk through the entire worship service step by step; we will learn about the gifts of the Spirit and spiritual warfare in the context of worship, and whatever else God wants us to learn this summer.
· So, let’s jump right in!
I. WHAT IS WORSHIP?
JOHN 4:23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
· This is what Jesus taught us—that God the Father is seeking people to worship him in spirit and in truth. That is the objective of this whole series.
· God is seeking for you and for me to learn the truth about worship so we worship him in Spirit. There is a lot in that one verse, and over the next couple months we will be not only learning about worship, but hopefully by the presence of the Holy Spirit in each of us, we will be released into greater levels worship as we unite together each week.
· I think the best definition of worship I have heard is, “Real worship defies definition; it can only be experienced.”
· This is so true. Yet, I think as we learn the language of worship—words that help us talk about what we experience in God’s presence—we can begin to actually experience the truth and Spirit of worship flowing inside of us.
· Beyond what we do in our services, worship is a response of a human heart to God creating and sustaining us, and to him revealing his plan of saving us form sin throughout history.
LET’S TALK ABOUT WORSHIP WORDS
1. WORSHIP: In English, the word worship comes from the English “worthship” which means to attribute worth or respect to someone.
· As Christians, we declare how worthy God is and show our respect to him for creating us, giving us life and all our earthly blessings, and saving us from sin by coming at his command and invitation each week to meet with him in His very presence.
· In the original Greek, the NT uses several words that we translate worship.
· Latreia: this word is used to describe any kind of religious duty. An example is in Hebrews 9:1—
1Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.
· Proskuneo: a verb meaning, “I fall down.” Proskunein is a noun which means to fall down in prostration to give obeisance.
· In Luke 4:5-8, we see an example of this word used as the Devil talks to Jesus and in Revelation 5:14:
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours." 8Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
14The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. Rev. 5
· Thusia and prosphora: This word is what is translated sacrifice. It is a literal act of offering or bearing something before someone of authority. When you think of this word, think of bringing a gift to a King if you were invited to visit a monarch. Examples:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Rom. 12
15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. –Heb. 13
2. SERVICE: This is a word meaning something done for others. Jesus said the greatest in the Kingdom would become the servant of all, and so when we talk about worship, Jesus wants us to think of service as something we are bound to do for others.
6Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2
3.
OFFICE: You may hear people talk
about doing the daily office of prayer. Office is from the Latin officium,
which is the word for service or duty.
4. LITURGY: In the days of Jesus, if some did a leitourgia they the people in Greek LAOS, did a public work or ERGON, for the good of all people at their own expense, this was a liturgical act.
· The liturgy was a free giving to others at your own expense for their benefit.
· John 3:16 is the liturgy of God—he gave his only son to save us.
· Liturgy then, is a work performed by the people for the benefit of others.
· In Christian worship, liturgy is the coming together of all the people of God to freely engage in the work of worshiping God which benefits everyone gathered there, as well as the community in which they are worshiping as the presence of God and his blessing comes there.
· You may not think of this often, but in some places, where there are no liturgies and no worship, there is not the presence of God’s blessing like there is in the west where worship is part of who we are.
5. RITUAL: Repeated actions that are approved ways of worship. From this, we get the word rite, which the actual words sung or spoken, the ceremonies repeated, or the directions that are given during a service of worship.
NOW, WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE TTRUTH OF WORSHIP, SO LET’S CLOSE TODAY WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPIRIT OF WORSHIP
· The essence of worship is that worship is not something that simply happens in a congregation when we feel an anointed presence of God.
· Worship can happen when we are in our darkest hours of life when we affirm God’s love and sovereignty despite our circumstances.
· When we go through public shame like King David or suffering like Job, that is when we find out under stress the real quality of our worship.
· Worship in truth means we will worship under any circumstances. This is the very essence of worship. We see it in the lives of Abraham, Moses, David and Job—regardless of life shattering circumstances or complete emotional turmoil, I bow my heart and life before God.
· The bottom line in worship is confessing his Lordship when everything around you screams that God is unjust! He is unfair! He does not love you!
· In those times, true worship says, “The Lord is God. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
· Now, before you start looking at your life and getting anxious about how you worship, let me tell you worship is something we learn to do.
· Ps. 89:15 says, “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you.” Worship is not a talent you are born with, nor is it a special gifting that only a few have.
· Worship is the learned art of expressing yourself to God, and that means worship in us can grow as we learn to express and open our hearts as individuals and then together as a congregation so our lives are channels of the Holy Spirit helping us to pray, praise, and express our love for God in Christ.
AW TOZER put it like this:
What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven.
· May the language of worship and the essence of worship in Spirit in truth in you grow so that St. Patrick’s Church becomes known as a people of exuberant and extravagant worship.