Worship. When you read that word-worship-what comes to mind? Do you think of our sanctuary? Or where you do your personal devotions? Or maybe the throne room of God? Do you hear hymns when you think of worship? Or praise songs? Or repeating choruses? Are you standing with hands raised? Or dancing? Or on your knees? Or are you face down on the floor? Are you singing, shouting, praying or silent? When I say the word worship, what comes to your mind?

Its been said that worship is a lot like love-difficult to describe in all its complexities but when you see it you know it. And yet, much like love, pointing to a pure, tangible example is impossible-it is always tainted by.well, by us. Its that tainting by us that makes a study of worship so important.

That is what we began this past Sunday. Over the next six weeks we will be studying what scripture says about various aspects of worship. During our series we will be studying the instruments of worship, the styles of worship, the words of worship, the order of worship, and finish up with the heart of worship.

But before we get into those topics, it would be good for us to have a definition of what worship is. And that, unfortunately, is where our problems are going to start. Though worship is described on almost every page of scripture, it is never defined for us. There have been no end to the books that have been written trying to define worship and although some definitions come close, none capture it completely. And so, this morning, we will not go where scripture does not go. Instead, we will look at three characteristics of worship that help to give it shape.

We saw in John 4:23-24 that Jesus declares true worshippers as those who worship the Father in spirit and truth. If our worship of the Father is in spirit then we must have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for true worship. And throughout John's Gospel, Jesus is constantly referring to Himself as the only Truth. True worship is directed towards the Father through Jesus in the empowerment of the Spirit.

We saw how important it is to know who or what we worship because, as Psalm 115:4-8 shows us, we will become like that which we worship. We then focused on one of the characteristics of God - He invites others to worship Him. We highlighted the point that if you don't worship Him, you are not taking glory away from Him. If you choose rebellion He will be glorified in your rebellion and one day, when you are face to face with Him, you will be compelled to worship Him simply by His presence. But in the same way, you can't increase God's glory as though somehow He is going to owe you for giving Him more glory than He would have had otherwise. We must always remember that we are but dust-He is the Creator and we are the creatures. God will be fully glorified regardless of our actions. But still, He invites us to be part of worshipping and glorifying Him.

And so, like Him, we invite others to worship Him-both those who are already worshippers of God and those who are not. For those who are not, we invite them so that, as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, he might 'be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So, he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"'

And yet, as important as community worship is in the life of a believer, we can't imagine a time of true worship that is not precipitated by worship that has already been happening all week long. Worship is a way of life and we cannot worship together as a community on Sunday if we haven't been worshipping throughout the week-well, at least you can't apart from repentance. The most deeply fulfilling worship is worship done in the midst of a community of worshippers. And yet our community of worship is insufficient if it is not an expression of the worship that goes on in our individual lives.

Let me explain this. In the Old Testament the means of approaching God was the temple and obedience to sacred ritual. Specific places, times, and things were declared sacred by God. In the New Testament, the means of approaching God is through Jesus and so there is no sacred place or time or things. Well, no.better said, all places, all times, all material blessings become sacred-your individual life, your family life, our congregational life. When I asked you earlier what you think about when you think about worship, did you think about Cheerios? Do you think of your breakfast as an act of worship? It is. Your body is the temple of the Living God and how you care for it is an expression of worship to Him. And so, even Cheerios can be an expression of worship. Corporate worship-the type of worship that we practice each Sunday morning-is only a particular expression of a life of perpetual worship that takes every part of our lives and redeems it for God's glory.

So, we start our series on worship with the shape of worship before us: True worship is always God-focused, proclaiming in word and action the glory of God in all His majesty; True worship is edifying to its participants both in their individual life and in the community of believers; True worship is a means through which we can proclaim the Gospel.

Weekly Devotional

Monday-Psalm 145

Tuesday-Psalm 146

Wednesday-Psalm 147

Thursday-Psalm 148

Friday-Psalm 149

Saturday-Psalm 150