For this, our final week, we gathered together and talked about “why” we worship. After watching and discussing a great video from www.SermonSpice.com called “Gift of Worship,” we looked at several reasons we worship and the scriptures behind them. Well, of course we worship because the Bible tells us to — but what precisely does God say in His Word?
We studied these reasons: (Scriptures are on handout page)
1. We were created to
2. He is Holy
3. It fosters intimacy and relationship with God
4. To thank Him for saving us
5. To hear God speak
6. To defeat the plans of Satan
7. To become more Christlike
8. To encourage one another
9. To be blessed by God
He is our Audience of One, worthy of praise, with us always, powerful, mighty, Holy, and Loving who guides us to all good things and transform us more and more into His likeness for His glory!
Well, we missed a week because of my Mom’s sudden hospitalization, but met again this week for “Week 5″ (Mom is much better, by the way– thanks for praying!)
This week we discovered what the Bible says about the “How” of worship. First we viewed a slide show of about 20 or so photographs of Christian believers demonstrating worship in church services from a variety of churches. Each was a bit different from the others. Some would be called traditional — people sat with hymnals, a choir led, etc. Some were “contemporary” — others were casual or charismatic or from other parts of the world. First we ask ourselves, “How do these photos make me feel? Comfortable? Uncomfortable?” Then we looked at them a second time and discussed the Biblical expressions found in each. Our application for this week is to think about the “uncomfortable” expressions and why we felt that way.
Are you uncomfortable if someone lies prostrate while worshipping? Do you think worship in motion type dance is okay? What about the people who raise hands and close eyes? What about worship leaders who raise hands or kneel or close eyes?
Next we looked at Psalm 95 and the various worship expressions listed there. I also gave a handout of worship postures and Bible scriptures related to each (see handout section.)
It was a very practical interaction about something we do every Sunday.
Next week is the last class and we will study and discuss why we worship.
I think the question isn’t so much “Where do we worship God” but “Where can we NOT worship God?” Okay, that’s bad grammar — but the point is — Where can we go that we wouldn’t be able to worship God? Where could we go that He would be unable to be?
The answer is, of course, NO WHERE! And that’s comforting and amazing and hopeful and powerful!
Psalm 139 reads:
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
And in Romans 8 it says:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So– Where can we worship Him? Everywhere! Where do we encounter Him– Everywhere! Where can His love find us? Everywhere!
Last night we dug deep into the Word to discover the Biblical foundation for worship. I was so proud of the ladies at class because they hung in there and dug deep — they are definitely seekers after God’s heart and truth.
We looked at the English definitions of worship and talked about what we in our society can worship instead of God: Money, stuff, movie stars, sports figures, power, body image, cars, children, marriage, sex, political causes were some that were mentioned. Then we read Psalm 81:8-12 where the Lord tells us that there should be no strange god among us nor should we worship any foreign God– for He is our God — He also states that when Israel did not do this, He gave them over to the stubborness of their hearts to walk in their own devices! Yikes — that made us shiver! I don’t think there could be anything worse than walking in my own devices away from God!
Next we talked about the Bible definitions of worship, including the Hebrew Shahach (to bow down, give obeisance to) and the Greek Proskyneo (bow down, fall prostrate, give obeisance to as well as to kiss toward or kiss forward).
Our Discovery Exercises led us to 5 principles: Worship is our First Priority (Isaiah 6:1-8; Acts 17:24-28); Worship centers on the Cross (Exodus 26:31-33; Mark 15:37-39, Hebrews 10:19-22 and 1 Peter 2:9); Worship comes from the heart (Isaiah 29:13, 2 Chron 16:9; Colossians 3:1); Worship is enabled by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:17-18, Jude 1: 20-21); and Worship is grounded in God’s Word (Psalm 138:2).
Our application this week is to ask God to show us people or things we may be worshipping instead of Him so we can turn away from them and turn to God. Also before we arrive at church Sunday morning, to look over our notes and scriptures from this week and last and ask God to help us focus on Him and worship from the Heart.
I pray all the women have a wonderful week seeking God’s face in the peace and joy of His presence!
After discoverying and sharing about the attributes and characteristics of God in class, this week we are paying special attention to various ways we interact with and experience God. We are going to note the characteristic of God in our interactions.
For example, if we pray to God to heal a friend, we will note that we interacted with Him as Healer
If God keeps us from harm when a car almost hits us, we would note that we interacted with our Protector.
As God shows up in your life this week — please feel free to share in the comments section of this post or bring to class!
We are also going to praise God in our private worship times by proclaiming the scriptural attributes we have studied. Anyone want to write it out Psalm-style? If yes, please share!
Tonight’s study focused on Who God is. We learned from Psalm 139 that God already knows us intimately– even before we were born. We can have misperceptions, however, about God that need to be deconstructed as we learn the truth of who He is.
Some ways to continue to know God at a deeper and deeper level: 1. Through His Word, the Bible 2. By spending time with Him through conversation, prayer, worship 3. From experts: preachers, teachers, books and other resources 4. By living life among Christlike People 5. by observing/listening for glimpses of God around You 6. By partnering with God through serving, evangelizing, helping 7. By Journaling
We dove into the Word tonight and discovered God in scriptures describing the different roles of God, characteristics of God and what He does. He is an everlasting God, Father of Lights, Protector, Provider, Creator, King, Shepherd, and Savior. We are never separated from His love, He has forgiven our sins, He goes into battle for us, He rejoices over us, and He is a tower of strength and our refuge. We shared some past ways that we’ve seen God in these roles in our life.
And we praised God with Psalm 103 and we worshipped to “Wonderful, Merciful, Savior.” You can play it above.
Now we will apply what we learned this week to our lives!
We had a great time in a beautiful and comfortable setting!
This Summer we are facilitating a Bible Study called “The Who, What, Where, When, Why & How of Biblical Worship: a six week discovery Bible Study.” Exercise Sheets, Class Notes, Resources and Comments will be kept here.
This study is intended to provide a structure to explore, discover, discuss, and apply God’s Word regarding Biblical Worship. We go to church every Sunday and the first thing we do is “worship” together. As new believers and church goers it’s possible we started “worshiping” each Sunday before we had knowledge of Who exacly we are worshiping, why we do it, where and when worship occured in the Bible (and how that applies to us today), how to worship — and all-in-all what is this worship thing anyway?
So for the next six weeks we will explore and discover what the Bible says about worship so that we can apply it together in our corporate and personal worship time.
But six weeks is a very short time, so we will have resources for further study and activities to apply and learn in the future.
