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Moses was a man of worship; he knew God. In Deuteronomy 32 we have recorded the Song of Moses as he worshipped His God. David was a man after God’s heart. He knew how to worship and it is David who calls us to worship in Psalm 95:6.
Worship is the foundation of a vital Christian walk, and the spiritual gauge of a Christian’s faith. Worship is not only giving to God what is rightfully His, but it brings us into the very presence of our Sovereign Lord. Worship is the highest spiritual experience a Christian can have, and allows us to know the intimacy with God and the power from God.
| THE DANGERS |
- Worship is becoming a lost art. This is the natural result when God is no longer necessary for our survival.
- Worship suffers when the love of God grows cold. Until God becomes more important than anything else in our lives, the church is in danger of losing God!
- When a person can receive Christ without disturbing his moral life, we are close to losing God.
- Worship, majesty and a vital Christian walk go hand in hand. Without one you cannot have the other.
- Christians today have lost the majesty and the power of God because they have forgotten how to worship.
- Worship has lost out in today’s intense competition for the human heart. We offer God everything but what He desires the most – our worship.
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| THE NATURE OF WORSHIP |
- Worship belongs uniquely to God. His very nature demands worship.
- Worship is a coronation – a crowning of God with devotion and adoration, of honor and glory, of offering to Him the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving by those who know Him.
- Worship is a love-driven joy and delight in His presence.
- Worship not only exalts Him, but also longs to be like Him.
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| EXAMPLES OF WORSHIP |
- Mary – “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46)
- The woman of the street who fell at Jesus’ feet to worship Him in tears (Luke 7:36-50)
- Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha, who worshiped Jesus with her tears and costly perfume (John 12:1-8)
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| THE SECRET OF WORSHIP – KNOWING GOD |
- It is quite possible to know Jesus and know Him well
and not know God, especially as Father! A Christian can be filled with the Spirit and still not know God. A person can be greatly used by God and not know God – not as God would have us know God.
- David in his final charge to Solomon admonished him to know God! (1Chronicles 28:9). David understood the need for he was a man after God’s heart – he knew God.
- The admonition to seek God is not for the unbeliever! Seventy-two times in the Bible the saint is commanded to seek God, with the incredible promise that in seeking there is the finding of God.
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| PERCEPTIONS |
- Our perceptions of God are basically developed out of our relationship with our earthly father. How we perceive God depends on the kind of relationship that existed between our fathers and us. This of course produces a warped perception of God and a wrong sense of worship.
- God knows that if He is to restore His majesty and find those to worship Him in spirit and truth, then He must do it in and through us.
To accomplish this He must change the wrong things we believe about God and replace them with the right ones.
- Our perception of God is the most important. A wrong perception of God warps our entire life because of the tendency to become like that which we worship. A wrong perception of God assumes that God is something He is not – basically it is idolatry.
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BECOMING WHAT WE WORSHIP
Worship is not just something we do – it is more than that. Basically worship is a dynamic born out of a vibrant relationship. Because it is a dynamic it leaves its imprint on the one worshipping.
We take on the character and characteristics of what we worship, of whom we worship.
David knew and understood this principle. It is a basic principle of life –
we become like that which we worship. Twice he wrote of this in the Psalms (Ps.115:4-8; 135:15-18).
Behavior is determined by whom and what we worship. This is one of the great principles of the Bible. This is why right worship is so crucial to a right walk with Jesus. Wrong worship is a catastrophe! It allows a person to worship the devil thinking he is worshipping God.
The more we know of God, the more we will worship Him, and the more we worship Him the more we become like Him. This is what the Apostle John tells us when he says that when we see Him as He is, we will become like Him (1 John 3:2).
As you can see, worship takes on a whole new meaning. Worship honors God and transforms us. It is a two-edged sword – one edge toward God the other toward us. Because of its impact upon us, worship – right worship – becomes imperative.
All that I have said thus far is the result of an encounter – an encounter with Jesus. One cannot meet Jesus and remain the same, for it breeds either reverence or ridicule. For those who meet Him in reverence, the encounter creates a passion to worship Him. Why? Because He is esteemed
worthy of worth-ship.
At this point something most remarkable takes place. Knowledge of God creates a desire for worship, and worship brings a profound sense of His majesty – think of this for a moment, we have the right, the privilege of truly knowing the Sovereign God of the Universe. Amazing!
There are those, of course, who say this cannot happen, but don’t you believe them for one moment. If God commands us to seek Him, then He has made it possible to find Him and know Him. The natural desire of our Heavenly Father is that we, His children, know Him in all of His glory and majesty.
Right worship, true worship is supernatural. It is born in the heart of God and reproduced in us by the Spirit. You see the Holy Spirit patiently, insistently works within the heart creating a thirst for God – a hunger for the things of God. He orchestrates life’s circumstances to create dependence upon Him so we will worship Him.
THE POWER OF PERSONAL WORSHIP
God has already initiated the activity of worship. He has created the Holy Place for us and raised us up together with Him, ripping the veil that separated us from God. Even now He awaits us at His throne that we might worship Him. |
- First, we must COME! Come to God.
- Second, we must seek God.
- Third, we are to submit.
- Fourth, we must be prepared to listen
to God.
- Fifth, we must practice worship.
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There is a video tape available to accompany this lesson.
© 1999, Scope Ministries International, Inc.
Jim Craddock, Founder and President Emeritus
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