Part 1

"Worship"... what does it mean?

Hyper Dictionary:
[n] the activity of worshipping
[n] a feeling of profound love and admiration
[v] love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess; venerate as an idol; "Many teenagers idolized the Beatles"
[v] show religious devotion to, as of a deity; "Many Hindus worship Shiva"
[v] attend religious services; "They worship in the traditional manner"

Greek = sebomai

Strong's Dictionary:
Middle voice of an apparently primary verb;
to revere, that is, adore: - devout, religious, worship.

Thayer's Dictionary:
1) to revere, to worship

Hebrew = shachah

Strong's Dictionary:
A primitive root; to depress, that is, prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God): bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.

Understanding what worship means... we can worship any person or thing we wish to worship. Of course in the sense of this study we want to consider our worship to God. I believe most religious people would agree that prayer is one of our greatest ways of worshipping God. The apostle Paul tells us to pray without ceasing...

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

We can conclude that if we indeed pray without ceasing that we should be constantly worshipping God. However, in this study we will focus on our worship activities within the organized church worship service... the special ways our Holy God has directed us to approach Him intentionally in order to seek His favor.

When we worship God we must worship Him by faith and in spirit and truth...

John 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

We find the first account of worshipping God in the Old Testament...

Genesis 4:1-4 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

In the Old Testament, worship first occurred when Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices to the Lord. God was more pleased with Abel's sacrifice because God viewed it as the manner in which Christ would be offered at a later time.

We can read of Abel's more noble sacrifice in the letter of Hebrews...

Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.


Abel's offering was by faith with respect to what God desired (it was according to God's very words), while Cain's sacrifice was from his own ideas without faith and sincerity. Abel "obtained witness" by "God testifying of his gifts". God testified that He approved of Abel's sacrifice and disapproved of Cain's. We can conclude that Abel obviously followed the instructions that God had given to them for worship, while Cain obviously did not. This is our first account and verification that we CANNOT worship God based on our own ideas… we must worship by faith, from God’s instructions in His Word. This is important to remember as we proceed with this study.

Abraham also worshipped God by building an altar, and he "called on the name of the LORD."

Genesis 12:7-8 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.

Consider this Old Testament story where God gave specific instructions on how to worship...

Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

Notice how they "offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them." Then God sent fire down to consume them. Nadab and Abihu were not walking by faith (by God's instructions... His very words), therefore they were condemned by God. We learn again that they had their own ideas of what God would want, BUT God did not ask for what they brought (the strange fire). Their worship was NOT by faith.

We can learn from these first few passages that God designates the specific way in which He wants to be worshipped. When God gives us specific instructions we are not to violate them. We are to worship God according to His instructions and not of our own desires. Where do we get His instructions from? From His Word of course.

These stories help to teach us how we walk by faith...

2 Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight)

How do we obtain the faith to walk by? God tells us in His Word...

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

We walk by faith by knowing God's Word and honoring it. This is the ONLY way we can please Him.

When Abel and Cain were instructed on how to worship God, Abel walked by faith because he followed God's instructions while Cain did not walk by faith because he decided his idea was better than God's instructions.

We should walk by faith just as God has instructed us to do through His Word.

Where there is no revelation of God on a subject, there can be no faith. If there is no instruction on a subject then it is impossible to walk by faith on that subject… it would only be our opinion or our idea, and we know what happened to those who offered their own ideas. Let's consider another passage to help us understand what it means to walk by faith...

John 3:1-2 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

By faith we know that Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews and that he came to Jesus by night. What we DO NOT know by faith is why he came by night. It would be only a matter of opinion as to why he came at night because God's Word does not tell us why.

So by faith we hear the Word of God and worship Him in spirit and in truth because we have God's Word that instructs us to do so. We must lay aside our own suggestions and ideas and walk strictly by the Word of God.

We should speak only where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. We should submit to the authority of God... His divine power has given us everything we need...
2 Peter 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Everything we do we should do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...

Colossians 3:16-17 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Notice Paul wrote "...whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus...". To do something in "word" is to "teach". To do something in "deed" is to "practice". Remember the ole saying... "practice what you preach". But the key part of this passage is to "...do ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus..." These are the three important words in this passage... "word, deed, and name". "In the name of" signifies the AUTHORITY by which something is done.

It is clear that whatever we teach and whatever we practice is to be done in the name of Christ. Whatever we teach must be by divine authority. Whatever we practice must be by divine authority. ALL that we teach and do must be by the divine authority of Jesus Christ. God has given us “everything we need” right in His Word.

If we do not have authority for a practice then we should not do it. We should be silent when the Bible is silent. If God has not spoken about it then it is not authorized. We cannot walk by faith if it is not authorized by God’s Word.

__________________
In Christ,
brother Sonnie

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the LORD: "Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'