How Are We to Worship God?

Mr. Steve Durham emphasizes the importance of worshiping God in this message with all our hearts, souls, and minds.  The definition of worship as a respectful response to the glory of God ·         The distinction between true worship and false worship. ·         The growth and deepening of worship in our relationship with God. ·         Having the awareness of false worship in the world, including Satan worship. ·         The blindness of those who do not believe in the true God. ·         There is a need to focus on God's word and not be swayed by worldly opinions. ·         Worship involves a mind and heart connection and a deepening response. ·         Worship is a response to who God is and what He does and says. ·         God created us to worship Him and to glorify Him. This is our Every Other Sabbath Go-To Meeting. Title of my message today is Worship. So let's turn to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, verse 3. Deuteronomy 6, verse 3. And we see something here where God has inspired, Moses wrote this, but God has inspired him to tell us how we worship God. How we are to worship God. He says in verse 3, And with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. So we love God and we hear his words and we act on that in this relationship and it's an all-in relationship and it's from the heart and the mind. That's what true worship is. And that's repeated again, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 22, I'll just read it to you, Matthew 22. We know this scripture, we go to it quite a bit. Verse 37, And Jesus said to him, the young lawyer, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. That's an all-in, total worship and commitment in the relationship between us and Jesus Christ and Christ and God the Father in us. In John 17, 11, and 21, he says we are all one. We have his mind in us and we are to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ as we heard last night. Now, Paul uses a, he talks about in Romans 12, he gives us a pretty good definition if you think about it, this all-in attitude in Romans 12, 1 and 2. Romans 12, verse 1 and 2. Another scripture that we talk about and we recite and we think about quite a bit. He says, I exhort you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. Present your body a living sacrifice. A reference to the sacrificial system. You think of that. Holy and well-pleasing to God which is your spiritual service. Then he tells us, do not conform yourself to this world. We're called out of the world. We're not to be part of it. We live in it and God is with us. He says, but be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind in order that we may prove what is well-pleasing and good and the perfect will of God. So this is a sort of encapsulates our all-in attitude of worship. Of worshiping God and it's well-pleasing to him. And it shows that he knows that you are with him and your heart and mind are with him. And he'll do that. He'll transform our minds and our attitudes with the Holy Spirit once we are baptized and laid on of hands and we see the Holy Spirit. That's the life changer. So he shows this all-in devotion of one's life to God. This scripture gives us some insight and understanding about our calling and our purpose to God and in God. And as we grow in that we learn more about God and we learn to love him and we worship him and praise him. Okay. Totally in. So today I'm going to talk about just an introduction to worship. And there's so many facets to it. So many different aspects. You know, you have praise and gratitude and thanksgiving and you've got gathering together and worshiping. We have prayer which is a portion of or a part of giving our worship, worshiping God verbally. We have the meditation. So there's a lot of different things to this. But I want to talk about worship sort of the basic one-on-one worship. Okay. And then I'm going to talk about some other things later on in another message that relate to this. I want to talk about both the false worship because there is false worship and the true worship toward God and what the Bible says about worship. Why we as true Christians with God's Holy Spirit, why we worship the true God and not a false God? That's sort of a little would be ridiculous for us to do that. But sometimes we get off a little bit and we don't know it and we are not following God and worshiping God. We are actually headed off into the world, into another area of false worship. So why is worshiping God and worshiping a true God so important to a true Christian? Sort of an obvious question. But think about it. You know, after all, it's the reason why God created us. That's the reason why God created us. To worship Him and to glorify Him and the Father. So we are going to see that and we are going to get there. But first, the definition of worship, it always helps to have a definition. There's two. There's the Hebrew and the Greek. I called Michael Heiss on this and it's very interesting. There's a lot of varying shades on this. But there's a couple words. There's, I don't know if I'll pronounce them correctly. Shakta and Eftahavah Eftahavah That one means, the Hebrew word literally denotes the act of bowing down. You know, when you see the queen or you see the king or you come in the presence of royalty, you bow down. The Greek word prosoukano I know that's not correct. Worship. It equals worship. And it means to encounter God and praise Him. To encounter God and praise Him. That's what we do when we worship, isn't it? We've encountered God. We've built a relationship with Him. And we see how awesome He is and we can't help. You just can't help it. It's just amazing. We praise Him. So we're going to see a little bit more on that subject, praise. Both terms seem to define worship as an activity or an action. On the surface, it is. It's a physical action. However, true worship or to truly worship God involves more than just activity or action. It's part of it, but true worship comes from a realization of who God is and that it is gained by having a relationship with the true God. We have to think about Him. He has to be in our lives. We have to be walking with Him. He is the way. He is the truth. And He's the life, the eternal life, the hope of the eternal life that we're looking toward and an abundant life now and in the future. So a more in-depth definition of worship would be worship is the reverential response of the creation or the created to the glory and the magnificence of God. Once you realize that, you can't help but worship Him in reverence and fear, which is fear is a reverential fear, not a shaking in your boots. So that's the response. Or we could say worship is the believer's response of all that he is, mind, emotion, will, and body, as we read, to all that God is and does and says. That's your response. Your whole response, your mind, your heart. Emotion is part of that. We'll talk about that. But we can't be led in worship by emotion, by emotion only. We'll talk about that in a minute. It is a mind and heart connection. Again, it's a loving response that is balanced by the fear of the Lord, and it is a deepening response. We grow in grace and knowledge in this relationship. We grow as we come to know God and who He is and how He works in our lives even more, even more in our worship. It becomes more relevant. It becomes more real. That's the reality of this life. It's not the physical. It's the reality, the spirit, the heart, the mind. Who should we worship? Sounds strange, doesn't it, for us? But it's not strange to the world. That question is not strange to the world. But we know what true worship is. But let's look at the other side here. Let's look at how the world thinks of worship. I'll make a note here, just a sidebar here, and we're going to get into it. But Satan worship is the fastest growing religion in the United States and probably the world. But in the United States, Satan worship, it's a religion. It's always been vogue to worship other gods. In vogue, it's always been the thing to do, to worship other gods and even worship the world's Christianity worships a false counterfeit god, the god of the world, this world, Satan the devil. We know in 2 Corinthians 4, again, another scripture we hear, for we have personally renounced the hidden things of dishonest gain. That's what we do when we come in contact with the true God. Not walking in cunning craftiness. See the word craftiness, craft, witchcraft. Not walking in cunning craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth. And that's a whole other subject, a whole other sermon, several sermons. We are commending ourselves to every man's conscience before God. But if the gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are perishing, in whom the God, the small g, of this world, or this age, has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. Lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, and we're made in His image, should shine into them. For we do not preach our own selves. Very important. But Christ, Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. Because it is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who shined into our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You see how that works? So the world has been blinded, but the world has a part in this as well. Romans 121, Paul talks again, Romans 1, all of Romans, first chapter, couple chapters, Romans 121 says, because they knew God, now think about this, at one time they knew God. What did they do with it? They glorified Him not as God. They didn't worship God, the true God. Neither were thankful, but they became vain in their own reasonings. And their foolish hearts were darkened. That's why opinions are so, I try to keep them out of go to meeting. I try to keep all of these political and all these other things, keep them out. We think about what God has to say in His word. That's where we focus so that our foolish hearts won't be darkened. While professing themselves to be the wise ones, they became fools. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, idols of all sorts, and birds and four-footed creatures and creeping things. For this cause, God also abandoned them to the uncleanness through the lust of their hearts, again in their hearts, to the disgrace of their own bodies between themselves. And we're seeing this grow and it's becoming more in our face, more in the society. Who exchanged the truth of God, which they once had, for the life. They worshiped and served the created thing more than the one who is creator, who is blessed into the ages. Amen. So that's what's happened. That's where they are. Again, the question in some people's minds who haven't been called, I understand that, they haven't been called, but are going along happily in their darkened state, their darkened mind and heart. Their question is, they say, a lot of the Christians say, well, we worship God. We worship God. Again, they have a counterfeit God that's not doing what God says to do. And some even ask, unnecessarily in Christianity, should we worship Christ? Again, Satan would love to do away with Christ and those that follow him and the plan of God. He's desperately trying to uproot that and destroy it. For example, let's look at some things here. Jehovah's Witnesses, and I'm sure all these people are sincere, and I'm not trying to put them in a bad light, but let's just look at what they say. Jehovah's Witnesses say Christ is an Archangel Michael and not to be worshiped. That denies Christ. It takes him out of the picture, takes away the deity of Christ. Some say Christ was a prophet. He was a good prophet, but he wasn't God. Some say that he is the brother of Lucifer. Look at all these attempts to take Christ out of the deity that he is, the God, the God family. The world worships Satan and has the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden. That's when it started. We're going through Hebrews. I'm also going to talk about later, not in this message. Hebrews 1, where Paul explains the relationship of Christ to the angels. Very important. That was going on at that time. Guess what? It's going on again. It's happening again. The superiority of Christ over the angels, the subject of Hebrews 1, is very important. A problem that the churches were having regarding angel worship. I think the converse of that is what I'm going to talk about later. How do angels worship God? How do the good and the righteous angels worship God? It's going to help us understand how and why we should worship God in our lives. How His creation worships Him. That's for another time. To worship the true God, our creator, our maker, our provider, our sustainer, etc., is the ultimate purpose for which humans were created. God said, I have created them and made them for my glory. Turn to Isaiah 43, verse 7. We'll read that. I'll read verse 4 down through 7. Isaiah 43. It gives us another insight into God, the way God looks at us and how we should then respond to that. If you know somebody loves you and you begin loving them, you draw close to them. And you're in a much better relationship, right? Once you get to know a person. So, Isaiah 43, 7. Since you are precious in my sight, God says. You are precious. You have been honored. And I have loved you. Therefore, I will give men for you and people for your life. He says, fear not. For I am with you. No one's going to take you out of my hand or Christ's hand. I will bring your seed from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, give up. And to the south, do not keep back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Verse 7. Even everyone who is called by my name. For I have created him for my glory. I have created him for my glory. To praise me. To glorify me. To glorify the Father. That's our purpose. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him. Just think about that. Just take that out in the woods or in the back porch or somewhere with a coffee and meditate on that. Psalm 29 shows us that we are to give God the glory due to him. The worship. You know, glory, praise, worship. Synonyms. Give the glory to God. Psalm 29. Psalm 29. The Psalms are full of praise to God. David was a man after God's heart. He had the mind. Thinking with the Christ's mind and the thoughts of the Father and praising God. Had plenty of time to look around and see the wonders that God has done and the things in his life. Same way with us. We take the time to meditate, to pray, to think about who God is. We are going to go through some of that here. I can't cover it all but I want to hit on some of those things. Verse 1. To the Lord, O ye sons of the mighty, give to the Lord glory and strength. Your strength. Your time. Your effort. Your mind. Your heart. Your being. Be all in. Give to the Lord glory. Give to the Lord the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in beauty of holiness with God's Holy Spirit. True worship. Spirit and truth. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. Think about these things. This is our God. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is above many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. It breaks the cedars. We'll skip down here. He talks about the flame of fire. The wilderness shakes. He says verse 9. The voice of the Lord causes those to give birth and strips the poorest bare. And in his temple everyone says glory. Isaiah 6. The angels sing holy, holy, holy. It's almost as if it's around the clock giving praise to God. Verse 10. The Lord sits upon the flood. The Lord sits as king forever. And when you come into his presence, you bow down. We'll see that God bows down to you as well. The king, the Lord, the creator bows down and listens. Verse 11. The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. Remember Christ said John 14. My peace I give you. Not as the world. I give it to you. And then right after that he says he'll send the comforter. Or right before that. He says the comforter will come. The Holy Spirit. So everything we do I know this is more than action. But everything we do in word, which is thought and heart, and deed we do to Christ. In Colossians 3 17. We worship God in thought and deed. He says in everything whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him. His name is worthy of praise. We do it in his name and giving thanks for him and the Father. Everything you do. Every minute of the day. Pray without ceasing. The thought process. What am I doing? You're thinking of God. See the world doesn't think that way. They pick God out of everything. They seldom even take a thought of God. Who is God? 1 Corinthians 10.31 1 Corinthians 10.31 I'm going to try to get through all of this. It's an amazing subject. It is what we are. It's what our purpose is. Right? So think about worship differently. From now on. As we go through this. Think about who we're talking to and why we're talking to them and what the purpose of our being is and what he created and how he thinks about us. His creation. 1 Corinthians 10.31 He says therefore whether you eat or you drink or you do anything do all things to the glory of God. Worshipping him in everything you do. Praising him. Giving it to his glory. That's how you show that's how you glorify the Father. We are submitting to God. Yielding our will. And we're taking on his will. We realize that he is worthy of worship. Let's read 1 Chronicles 16.23 What happened here is 1 Chronicles 16.23. The Ark of the Covenant had been in the Philistine's hand and God had given that back to David in Israel. And they were ecstatic. You know I think David gave everyone a loaf of bread and something to drink and it was like having a chicken in every pot. It was exciting. And so he says in verse 23. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Show forth from the day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all people. For great is the Lord. And greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared reverently above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. He also has life. He's the life giver. Satan is not the life giver. He's the law giver. He's the provider. He's the sustainer. He's the creator. He answers our prayers. He listens to us. Give the Lord, O you kindred of the people, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord glory. Do his name. We read this. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in beauty and holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Yea, the world is established. It shall not be moved. Neither the law, jot or tittle based on heaven and earth being here forever. You know, the spiritual or the physical. Let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Let's drop down here. Okay, 34. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love and mercy endures forever. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Because of that, we are not consumed. He is a merciful God. In verse 35, he says save us, O God of our salvation and gather us and deliver us from the nations so that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Bless me the God, bless me the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. All the people said amen and praised the Lord. They worship God. There's another one in Psalm 145. We'll read another one here. Psalm 145. Look at all the things we gather from who God is and how he sees us and why he is worthy of praise. And why that, you know, that's our responsibility, that's our purpose. Psalm 145. Verse 1. I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. A continual state of worship. Every day I will bless you. And I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. And we're supposed to pass that on generation to generation to our children. I will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty and of your wondrous works. And the men shall speak of your might and your awesome works and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and great mercy. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. He sits on a throne of comfort and mercy and comfort. He is a God of mercy and of comfort. All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom. That's what we're to seek. And God will take care of everything else. Seek first the kingdom of God and talk of your power to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Remember he's going to be king forever. And your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up who are bowed down. Bowed down. And an interesting side point here is that wheat has a crown and barley has a crown. And what they do as they ripen, they bow. The grain bows. The grain bows. Barley and wheat. The first fruits bow. We bow to God. You even see it in creation in other ways. The eyes of all wait upon you and you give them their food in due season. He provides for us. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works. The Lord is near unto all who call upon him. Unto all who call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He will also hear their cry. He's listening. He bows down and he listens and will save them. The Lord watches over all who love him but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Revelation 5 13 We'll read it. Start in 12. Revelation 5 12. This is the future. He is the lamb now in the future and forever. Some want to take that name away from him. Again, an attempt to take the deity of Christ away. He is the lamb. He redeems us. His blood is precious. He is the sacrifice. He's the holy... He's the high priest. He's our advocate and intercessor. Redemption comes through him. Reconciliation of the entire world. Bringing the entire world and all people back. He says in verse 12, Revelation 5 saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and every creature that is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth that is, if you want to think about it that way, even the fallen angels, every creature every spirit being, every human and those that are in the sea and those things in them, I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing honor and glory and sovereignty into the ages of eternity and the four living creatures said amen and the four elders fell down 24 elders fell down and worshipped him another place says they throw their crowns in submitting, yielding to him who lives into the ages of eternity you know we worship him for many reasons we were nothing read from a speck of dust read that book look in perspective we didn't exist and God chose to create us he knew us he has a purpose for us and he's working that out and that purpose is awesome why wouldn't we want to worship him, he created us he loves us, he's given us everything we have 1 Corinthians 4 I'll just read that, 1 Corinthians 4 7 for what makes you superior to others and what do you have that you didn't receive everything you have everything physically your everything and then also the talents and abilities and the skills are all to glorify God all to praise him for that we're an empty vessel and he gives us these things for a purpose, to praise him to glorify him to grow in holy righteous character to become sons of God to be in his kingdom with him and his family forever, along with him so what makes you superior to anybody else and what do you have that you didn't receive but if you also received it which you did why are you boasting as if you didn't receive it in other words, no, identify the fact that that's why you're the way you are God gave that to you and you bless him the whole purpose again is to worship him and to glorify him he created us in his image he calls us, he draws us John 6, 44 he provides for us I'm going to read these, I'm going to give you scriptures I'm going to have time to read them Philippians 4, 19 he meets all our needs everything Psalm 107, verse 9 107, verse 9 he provides for the hungry oh and by the way he expects us to do this too to imitate him to be like him in character he provides for the hungry he provides for the hungry Luke 12, 8 God will take care of you he's taking care of you Matthew 6, it talks about clothing the lilies of the field and giving everything so why are you worried, I'm going to take care of you if I do that for them, I'll do it for you and God protects us Psalm 91 we could read Psalm 91 all the way through but I like 4 and 6 4, 5 and 6 he is our shield 9 and 10 he protects us from disaster and then when things do happen or we get in a tight spot in Psalm 37, 28 I'm sorry Psalm 91, 14 he rescues us when we get in those situations he's always there and there may be a reason why he leaves us in there for a while to learn, to grow to learn the lessons through trials and troubles that's why Paul said I rejoice in those he knew this, he knew the outcome what God was doing and then Psalm 37, 28 God protects us from Satan from the evil one so we don't have to worry, we don't have to worry about that not be fearful or anxious or worried what can man do what can Satan do unless God allows it but even then he has you and he has a purpose for you Jeremiah 29, 11 to a purpose for our good right he loves us Psalm 121, 7-8 he watches over us like a shepherd watches over the flock and then Hebrews 12, 6 he's a loving father and a loving parent and he corrects us when we need it out of love and we are in 2 Corinthians 4, 16 we are renewed daily our spirit is renewed daily when we're down and we go to God he renews us daily, everyday his mercies are sure daily Isaiah 40, 31 when we need, when we're weak and we're down it says those who hope in the Lord he will renew their strength and then we can Psalm 91, 1 we can rest in his presence he gives us rest he's there with us all the time we can cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you he will never allow the righteous to be moved it says in Psalm 55, 22 cast your burden and Christ said this too I think he was quoting what he had inspired to be written in Psalm 22 in Matthew 11, 28 and 29 this is who our God is this is who Jesus Christ our big brother, our friend and all the things that he is, he says come to me Matthew 11, 28 all you who labor and are overly burdened forget sometimes and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me the whole point for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls my yoke is easy my burden is light he cares for us he shows us his love his kindness, his patience his blessings and promises I have a book right here that I read a lot it's the Bible Promises Denise has got one and it's encouraging when you get down and read what he does how he blesses us and how he promises he's a loyal and faithful God he's working to bring all of us to glory he gives us grace he gives us his love and grace and grace is all those things it's a gift from him it's the hope of eternal life isn't it he gives us an inheritance in heavenly places let's start in verse 5 he says even when we were dead in our trespasses before Christ came we were dead the sin that we have and we are the carnal nature human nature we were dead in our trespasses he has made us alive together with Christ for you have been saved by grace and he has raised us up together and has caused us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus again Romans 4.17 says that he calls what will be things that are what they will be we will be sitting together we also go there in the Holy of Holies when we pray, we go in to the throne so he says he raised us up together and has caused us to sit together in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ so that in the ages that are coming he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus we did a bible study on the riches and the treasures of the heavenly place and the heavenly treasures and riches for by grace you have been saved through faith and this especially is not of your own self it is the gift of God that too is the gift of God so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship being created in Jesus Christ unto good works with his Holy Spirit that God ordained beforehand in order that we might walk in them ok let's read Ephesians 1 3-6 Ephesians 1 3-6 Ephesians 1 3-6 Ephesians 1 verse 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of the Father to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus grace and peace he says this a lot in the opening salutation grace and peace be to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ they want you to have that they want us to have that they do everything to make that possible blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly things in Christ with Christ according as he has personally chosen us he personally created us man he stopped he created it with his hand not his breath his hands and then he personally chose us for himself before the foundation of the world in order that we might be holy this is a purpose and blameless before him in love and he made that possible through his sacrifice having predestinated us for sonship in the family of God to himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will this makes him happy it's his will to do here is the purpose to the praise of the glory of his grace the worship and praise wherein he has made us objects of his grace in the beloved son is another gift and benefit in whom we have redemption through his blood and even the remission of sins that's awesome according to the riches of his grace again riches heavenly riches which he has made to abound in us toward all wisdom and intelligence having made known to us the mystery again another awesome thing he's done opened up our minds to the understanding of the plan of God for mankind what he's doing it's called a mystery made known to us the mystery of his own will according to his good pleasure again which he purposed in himself that in the divine plan the plan of God for mankind for the fulfilling of times he might bring all things together in Christ both the things in heaven and the things on earth another reason to worship him yes in him in whom we also have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who is working out all things according to the counsel of his own will you know it's what he does whatever he wants to do and this is his will and this is the plan that he's done he's put into action and it's going to happen and as we come to understand him and grow in that and the love back to him we want to worship him we want to praise him and the more we do the more he responds the more we draw close the closer he draws to us in whom verse 13 you also trusted after hearing the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after believing you were again wow sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise that's an amazing thing you look at the rest of the world they don't they don't get it they don't understand it but God has chosen will to call you why me I don't know which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of a purpose purchased possession again to the praise of his glory to worship him he's given his grace his love his peace every spiritual blessing in heavenly things he personally chose us he predestined according to his purpose holy and blameless before him in love that's how we we stand and the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us object of his grace he has given us redemption through his blood and the remission of sins through his Holy Spirit we have wisdom and intelligence we're able to do these things God helps us with that leads and guides us hearing the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after believing you were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit which is that earnest of our inheritance wow why wouldn't we want to worship God and praise him see the relationship we are priceless in his eyes we aren't priceless of ourselves we are priceless in his eyes we're fearfully and wonderfully made God shaped and molded you in your mother's womb he's talking about Jeremiah and God created you in his own image and you were created redeemed and you are deeply loved and valued by God when you get down and depressed know that Satan's moods and his attitude are bombarding us think about these things that we're deeply loved and valued by God we're priceless to him and he sees us all the time he knew us before we were born Psalm 139 I'm going to have to move a little faster here so I'm going to read these quickly Psalm 139 13 I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your works my soul knows it very well when we come to understand that we can praise him and worship him even more and we draw close to him we don't want to be in the world we don't want to be a target of all those negative moods and emotions that come at us from Satan that's where it comes and not from God when you're grumpy grouchy when you're down you're weary you're wore out you're moody yeah we don't have control of our emotions the emotions that the godly emotions they aren't godly emotions you know so we have to ask god for help and he'll hear us Jeremiah 1 4-5 it says now the word of the lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you and appointed you a prophet to the nations he appointed us as called out ones as sons and daughters Romans 8 14 15 and 16 1 John 3 behold what glorious you can read those we are sons of God we are children of God we are predestined to be his son it says in Job 10 8 your hands shaped me and made me will you now turn and destroy me no he's not going to abandon his heritage he began a good work in you and he's going to complete it as a purpose for us give us hope and a future genuine worship true worship by the true believers to the true God is God centered worship it exalts God only nothing else nothing else no other idols no people no self it's God it is offered for his pleasure alone because he alone is worthy it says in Psalm 89 86 verse 9 you really just need to read the whole thing so we'll just start in verse 1 bow down your ear O Lord answer me for I am poor and needy you see how God David knew that he's coming down like you do an adult goes down to a child preserve my soul for I am holy give me your Holy Spirit you've given me your character O you my God save your servant who trusts in you be merciful to me O God for I cry unto you all day long he's thinking of him all day long he needs him constantly he's needy and poor he says rejoice the soul of your servant for you for to you O Lord do I lift my soul I praise you I worship you and again just a side note I had a whole thing on it but the world will have praise worship okay and they'll do praise dancing and they'll do all this stuff emotionally and getting all worked up emotionally singing and dancing and music and things like that are elements of worship but they aren't the things that initiate it it's from the heart and from the mind so be careful of that you know Pentecostal emotionalism that goes on in many many many religions rejoice the soul of your servant for to you Lord do I lift my soul for you Lord are good and ready to forgive if we repent and rich in mercy to all those who call upon you that's what we have to do give ear O Lord to my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplication in the day of my trouble I will call on you for you will answer me he knew and God will among the gods little g there is none like you O Lord neither are there any works like your works all nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you O Lord and shall glorify your name they will worship him for you are great and do wonderful things you alone are God teach me your way O Lord I will walk in your truth unite my heart to fear your name I will praise you O Lord my God with all my heart I will glorify your name forever for great is your mercy toward me and you have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave he gives us long life and when we die which we will he delivers us from the grave he resurrects us to be first fruits to be on the sea of glass in his family forever O God the proud have risen against me and the company of violent men have sought after my life and have not set you before them but you O Lord are a God full of compassion and gracious slow to anger and unbounding and steadfast love and truth O turn to me and have mercy upon me give your strength to your servant and save the son of your handmaid show me a token for good so that they who hate me may here's the reason why it says heresies must be among you so that those that believe in you are manifest that's the reason why that happens look at this show me a token for good so that they who hate me may see and be ashamed because you Lord have helped me and comforted me okay but it's all based God centered on his greatness and his glory it's an inward posture it's an inward attitude and it's an inward man of the heart and the attitude of bowing down as we saw in 86 Psalm 86 in humble all filled recognition of God's worthiness honoring him revering him at all times as the supreme authority over our lives let's go to Psalm 51 Psalm 51 where David you can read the whole thing about a contrite heart humble he says in verse 17 O Lord open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise he says I'm going to worship you for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it you do not take pleasure in burn offering in the physical things the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrived heart O God you will not despise and he says David goes on to say O come and let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker in Psalm 95 read through Psalm 86 and 145 God is worthy to receive praise and worship Revelation 4 11 it's God's word and his purpose in us and it's central worshiping God is central to the relationship in the word of God and to our lives and the future Revelation 4 11 worthy are you O Lord to receive glory and honor and power because you did create all things and for your will they were created and exist so a simplified definition of worship can be stated as continual heart attitude of bowing down in reverence and in humility before the supreme Lord and creator of the universe worship is the heartbeat of the believers existence or it should be a lifelong celebration of the worthiness of God and his greatness and his awesome ability and power and presence who he is to worship is to respond to one's whole being in adoration, exaltation humble submission and obedience to God and again David says and I'm going to leave it at this five minutes over David says in Psalm 95 6-7 this is what we need to do as well have God in your mind constantly and our relationship with God we are nothing without him we would not exist without him we don't have anything without him and he gives us everything everything you want another key is to remember that when it happens some will keep a journal of the things that happen and that God's direct intervention in your life it's very important to do that so you can bring it up in times when you're down or when you're weak or when you're depressed or despondent or despair which happens bring it back up and look at that see what he does, how he works with you in his life and has and what he will do so leave it with this Psalm 95 6-7 O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand so remember about worship and what it is and then every opportunity you get worship him so have a good Sabbath see you next time