Caveat: Only worship the LORD your God, for He alone is worthy, that even goes for angels who stand in the presence of God and represent or speak for Him. "At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts." Worship is called that because of His "worth-ship." We worship God for who He is and what He has wrought.
The typical believer thinks that he simply goes to church to "worship" God and hopes to get something out of it. This couldn't be further from the truth, biblically speaking, that is. We don't go to worship we are to worship with our bodies, our time, our talents, our resources, our opportunities, our money, our speech or testimony, our demeanor or attitude, our relationships, our vocations and vacations or witness. Our whole life is a devotion to God. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God...." Worship is a prostration of ourselves unto God, valuing and recognizing his "worth-ship" (the origin of the English word). We "bow" to God ("worship and bow down," says Ps. 95:6). Whenever we give God His "due" we are worshiping and humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord--"God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Worship must be lively or "in the Spirit" and not "lukewarm, nonchalant, disinterested, or casual (this refers to Mark 7, Matt. 15 and Isa. 29:13 which says, "Because these people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." Jesus said, "But in vain do they worship me.")--we take God seriously and not treat Him in a flippant or frivolous manner. Don't be a fraud at worship, but sincere.
Indeed, some are more demonstrative and some are by nature stoical or inhibited, but God wants us to learn to worship God, nevertheless--feelings are not wrong, but worship is more than emotionalism, just as much it is more than intellectualism. "Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name, worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness" (Ps. 29:2). ("Bless the LORD, O my soul, all that is within me bless His holy name, says Ps. 103:1. Jesus said that those who worship God must "worship in spirit and in truth," according to John 4:24.
That means that accuracy and right teaching are important to God as well as how excited we get. Speaking of excitement: Ps. 100:4 says, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter his courts with joy." Ps. 47:1 says: "Clap your hands all ye peoples, shout to God with the voice of triumph." Likewise Ps. 89:15 says: "Blessed are the people who hear the festal shout," or "Blessed are the people who hear the joyful call to worship!" or "Blessed are the people who have learned to acclaim You."
Worship is a celebration and meant to be happy and a "sacrifice of thanksgiving." "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me," says Ps. 50:23. All worship glorifies God and whenever we do something to the glory of God it is a sacrifice to God, in fact, "whatever you do, do to the glory of God," 1 Cor. 10:31. God hates "solemn assemblies" and "religious feasts" (Amos 5:21).
We offer our daily activities to glorify and honor our Maker and they are the worship we are called to do, just as the pastor giving his sermon is doing what God has called him to do in life (another example is the bricklayer seeing himself as building a temple for God, not just making money or laying bricks). I've heard it said that we don't "go to church, we are the church." It is the same in worship, there is corporate worship as the body assembles and we are not to neglect this, but we are to worship God individually (our private walk with the Lord), too and I don't mean like the farmer who says he can give God His due in the cornfield.
The biggest misconception concerning worship is that one can listen to someone sing and that is worship per se. "Sing to the LORD a new song {not listen]." Worship is not passive, au contraire, it is very active and so active you would call it a sacrifice unto God. Yes, it's sacrificial and going to cost you (you might have to give up something, and I don't mean for Lent) We don't receive, we give--only God is worthy of worship and in today's society there are many idols people worship, such as fame, fortune, power, success, and money even though we don't worship "idols" like the Israelites did.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" worship and some are traditionalists by nature and don't like new, untried activity. God wants us to always give Him the credit and not think it ours. The motto of the Reformation was Sola Deo Gloria or to God alone be the glory! The more we exalt God the better and we should be like John who said, "He must increase, I must decrease." The whole idea is to get our eyes off ourselves and on our triune God. As we get older we get set in our ways, but this is not ideal--we should be young at heart and relate to the youth, even then, and reach out to them--the older are to mentor the younger in the Lord. Soli Deo Gloria!
The typical believer thinks that he simply goes to church to "worship" God and hopes to get something out of it. This couldn't be further from the truth, biblically speaking, that is. We don't go to worship we are to worship with our bodies, our time, our talents, our resources, our opportunities, our money, our speech or testimony, our demeanor or attitude, our relationships, our vocations and vacations or witness. Our whole life is a devotion to God. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God...." Worship is a prostration of ourselves unto God, valuing and recognizing his "worth-ship" (the origin of the English word). We "bow" to God ("worship and bow down," says Ps. 95:6). Whenever we give God His "due" we are worshiping and humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord--"God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Worship must be lively or "in the Spirit" and not "lukewarm, nonchalant, disinterested, or casual (this refers to Mark 7, Matt. 15 and Isa. 29:13 which says, "Because these people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." Jesus said, "But in vain do they worship me.")--we take God seriously and not treat Him in a flippant or frivolous manner. Don't be a fraud at worship, but sincere.
Indeed, some are more demonstrative and some are by nature stoical or inhibited, but God wants us to learn to worship God, nevertheless--feelings are not wrong, but worship is more than emotionalism, just as much it is more than intellectualism. "Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name, worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness" (Ps. 29:2). ("Bless the LORD, O my soul, all that is within me bless His holy name, says Ps. 103:1. Jesus said that those who worship God must "worship in spirit and in truth," according to John 4:24.
That means that accuracy and right teaching are important to God as well as how excited we get. Speaking of excitement: Ps. 100:4 says, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter his courts with joy." Ps. 47:1 says: "Clap your hands all ye peoples, shout to God with the voice of triumph." Likewise Ps. 89:15 says: "Blessed are the people who hear the festal shout," or "Blessed are the people who hear the joyful call to worship!" or "Blessed are the people who have learned to acclaim You."
Worship is a celebration and meant to be happy and a "sacrifice of thanksgiving." "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me," says Ps. 50:23. All worship glorifies God and whenever we do something to the glory of God it is a sacrifice to God, in fact, "whatever you do, do to the glory of God," 1 Cor. 10:31. God hates "solemn assemblies" and "religious feasts" (Amos 5:21).
We offer our daily activities to glorify and honor our Maker and they are the worship we are called to do, just as the pastor giving his sermon is doing what God has called him to do in life (another example is the bricklayer seeing himself as building a temple for God, not just making money or laying bricks). I've heard it said that we don't "go to church, we are the church." It is the same in worship, there is corporate worship as the body assembles and we are not to neglect this, but we are to worship God individually (our private walk with the Lord), too and I don't mean like the farmer who says he can give God His due in the cornfield.
The biggest misconception concerning worship is that one can listen to someone sing and that is worship per se. "Sing to the LORD a new song {not listen]." Worship is not passive, au contraire, it is very active and so active you would call it a sacrifice unto God. Yes, it's sacrificial and going to cost you (you might have to give up something, and I don't mean for Lent) We don't receive, we give--only God is worthy of worship and in today's society there are many idols people worship, such as fame, fortune, power, success, and money even though we don't worship "idols" like the Israelites did.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" worship and some are traditionalists by nature and don't like new, untried activity. God wants us to always give Him the credit and not think it ours. The motto of the Reformation was Sola Deo Gloria or to God alone be the glory! The more we exalt God the better and we should be like John who said, "He must increase, I must decrease." The whole idea is to get our eyes off ourselves and on our triune God. As we get older we get set in our ways, but this is not ideal--we should be young at heart and relate to the youth, even then, and reach out to them--the older are to mentor the younger in the Lord. Soli Deo Gloria!