CURRENT SERIES
Worship
May 20, 2018
LifeWay Moments
LifeNotes
• Worship alone without the Word cannot really fulfill the splendor of who God is in us. We must have that Word before us before it can get in us.
• When we set out to study the scriptures, we begin to align our spirit in truth to begin to see the goodness of the Lord in a practical application of the majesty of a holy God that holds us in His hands. He places His Word above His name.
• We are God’s temple, since we inhabit that same spirit of Christ. The same spirit that rose Him out of the grave lives in us.
• His glory then begins to become pronounced in the world because we begin to understand who we are in Him. And when we begin to understand who we are in Him through what His Word says about us, it makes us want to worship.
• It is difficult to worship a God that we feel is out to get us. But we can worship a God when we understand that He wants to get something to us, through us and in us.
• God inhabits the praises of His people. The word “inhabit” means to dwell with, live with, be around, hang out with, or commune.
• Worship should be a heart form, not an art form.
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
• We can worship in many different ways: confessing, singing, shouting, standing in honor, kneeling, dancing, making a joyful noise, testifying, playing a musical instrument, through praise and thanksgiving, prayer, praying in the Spirit, soaking in and reading God’s Word, actions of goodness and kindness, and giving.
• Simply raising our hands in a position of surrender can open us up to worship, but raising hands is not necessary to worship.
• The original language for the word “prayer” actually means worship, and it also has a meaning of “to kiss the face.” Worship is an intimate, personal act that we get to do.
• One way to look at worship is to think of it as “worth-ship.” When we worship something, we declare that is is worthy or has value.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.
• Worship is a full-life response to the object of our worship. So when we truly worship something, it has an affect on our lives. And depending on what that object is, it could either be good or bad. We are creatures made to worship, so we all worship something.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
— John 4:23-24 NIV
• We need to worship in spirit and truth. When we worship in truth, we are worshiping the God that is revealed in scripture and not our idea of who God is. We worship in truth when we worship from the Word of God, because the Word of God is truth. And when our worship is based in the Word of God, that is when we worship in truth. We worship by reading the Word of God, by singing it, by speaking it, or even praying it back to God.
• We worship in truth when we worship from a pure and true heart.
• Worshiping in spirit is simply worshiping from your spirit.
• When we worship in spirit and truth, we can experience the power and presence of God.
• True worship is a relationship of intimacy. Like all relationships, it takes time to develop. The more you seek Him and the more you worship Him, the more He will reveal Himself to you.
• To worship God in spirit and truth is to declare that God is worthy of our reverence.
• We worship God based on the truth of who He is and who we are in Him.
• We worship God when our attitudes, our actions and our words declare that He is worthy of our praise.
• Worship should be our first line of defense. When things of the world come against us, fight back through worship.
• God inhabits the praises of His people, so when we worship, the enemy has to take his hands off of us.
• When we worship, it renews our soul, which is our mind, will and emotions. Worship heals. Worship builds us up. It opens doors, breaks chains and draws us closer to God.
• There are two avenues of worship — corporate worship and private worship.
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
— Matthew 15:25-26 NIV
Life Lesson
True worship is a matter of the heart. We can’t exalt God and ourselves at the same time, so when you worship, move yourself out of the way and make God the object of your worship because He is worthy. Then you can begin to worship in spirit and truth.