Worship War – Praise and Worship

[Gary Petty] How important is praise and worship music in your Christian life? Research in Christianity today describes how many young people are searching for a meaningful Christian experience primarily in praise and worship music. Music is a phenomenal expression of emotions in all human cultures, and in the Bible, music is used to praise and worship God. For many people, music is the most personal and moving experience of church services.

But let's ask a different question.What does God want to receive from you in your praise and worship of Him?

In the Hebrew language, worship means to bow down. The action of worship can involve music, but the biblical meaning is much broader, much bigger than just music.

True worship flows from a deep inner reverence, amazement, and humility before God's absolute goodness, power, and sovereignty in your life. Now, I'm going to repeat that. True worship comes from a deep inner reverence, amazement, and humility before God's absolute goodness, power, and sovereignty in your life.

True worship isn't just a ritual or an action. It must flow from an intense desire to honor God with all of your mind, heart, and actions. You see, the question is, when the music stops, are you still praising and worshiping God in your daily lifestyle before Him? Participating in religious music with a group may be an intense emotional experience, but without humility and reverence towards God, it isn't worship. The biblical book of Psalms is a collection of ancient songs praising and worshiping God.

Now, let's analyze the lyrics of a praise and worship song from the Bible. Now, these lyrics are from Psalm 95. Verse 1 says, "'O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.'"

This biblical song begins with a joyful message about the greatness of God. The purpose for the singing of this song was to come into the presence of God with thanksgiving. You see, being thankful is an important motive for expressing praise to God.

Now, this song continues, "'For the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the hills are His also, and the sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.'" These lyrics praise God as Creator.

Now, listen, though, to the next line. "'O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.'" Notice that the lyrics move from joyful praise to worship, described as bowing and kneeling before God. Praise is expressing thanksgiving for the goodness and greatness of God. But the purpose of worship is to express humble submission to the awesome glory of God.

Now, these lyrics actually lead to the next thought. "'For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice.'"

Here we see an image that would be meaningful in a culture where it was common to see shepherds all the time caring for their sheep, leading them to lush pastures. Now, the rest of the song is about the importance of listening to God and obeying His voice. That's what the lyrics are of the rest of this song.

In praising and worshiping God, our thoughts, emotions, and will must be centered on God, not ourselves. The humility and thanksgiving we are to experience prepares us, okay, it prepares us to listen to His voice so that we may obey Him.

Psalm 95 is a song explaining what God desires from our praise and worship. Did you hear it? Today, if you will hear His voice, that was right in the center of that song. Praise and worship music can create good feelings about having a religious experience, but its real purpose is to prepare your heart and mind to respond to God as the one who is the object of your praise and worship.

You know, Jesus Himself talked about this. He was confronting some religious leaders who were very involved in many praise and worship activities, but were not continually preparing themselves to respond to God's words.

Jesus criticized them for using certain religious traditions as a way to minimize one of the Ten Commandments, the command to honor your father and your mother. Ceremony and ritual were more important than obedience to the Word of God. And the religious leaders were incensed when He quoted from the ancient prophet Isaiah about God's displeasure on how some people worship Him and applied the prophet's message to them.

Here's what Jesus said, These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Did you get that? According to Jesus, it is possible to worship God in vain, meaning having religious ceremony without any real connection to God.

The result of vain worship is the creation of religious teachings that are not pleasing to God.

Now He is talking to people whose religious ceremonies produced an emotional experience that did not prepare their hearts and minds for God's words.

Now if you want to do a deeper study on what we're talking about today, go to https://www.ucg.ca/booklets/transforming-your-life-process-conversion/, where you can learn more about what God wants from us and how we praise and worship Him.

You can also listen to some joyful praise music while you read an important studyto help you understand God's desire for you is called Transforming Your Life. How can you know if you're worshiping God in vain?

There's a remarkable story from Jesus' ministry where He leaves Judea and goes to Samaria.

Samaria has an interesting biblical history. Originally, it was part of the nation of Israel. When the Assyrians invaded the land, the northern tribes were taken into captivity and replaced by people from different lands, different customs, and different religions. Those who were moved into Samaria mixed various pagan religions with a sketchy understanding of what had been the religion of the northern tribes of Israel. The Jews viewed the Samaritan religion as heretical and shunned them. And the Samaritans equally distained the Jews.

So Jesus travels into Samaria and set by a well where a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus asked if she would draw some water for him. No, she was shocked. Jews usually didn't talk to Samaritans. Jesus and the woman had an interesting conversation. You can read about it in John 4. Jesus finally tells her that her worship of God was unacceptable to God. Now, this is going to be a shocking statement to those who believe that God accepts all worship as long as the person has good intentions. This is why knowing what Jesus taught about worship is important. He says to her, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Proper worship of God must be in spirit and truth.

In the context of the conversation, Jesus is telling the woman that true worship doesn't require a physical sight like a temple or a mountaintop. He tells her that God is spirit, unlike us. He is not contained in time and space or locality. He is not bound by physical laws.

This means God wants to be worshiped in a spiritual way. Now, sometimes we can equate spiritual with emotional. Well, emotions are an aspect of worship, but to worship God in a spiritual way is much more than just an emotional experience. That means that we must drop all hypocrisy, denounce all sin, strip away all pride, and open ourselves to His spiritual guidance, His words. And to receive His guidance, authentic worship must be done in truth. This is not the subjective, my truth that we hear all the time. People talk about. It's the reality of the truth of the Almighty Creator God.

So what happens when the music stops? Are you filled with humility before the awesome God? Filled with a desire to please Him through obedience? Always praying for His guidance, forgiveness, and His love?

It really comes down to who is the God you actually worship? Is it the God of the Bible? Well, when we properly worship Him, we will be prepared to receive His truth, His words for us. And those words must come from the Bible and guide every aspect of our lives.

Let's look at one more biblical song that expresses true worship. It was written thousands of years ago by Israel's King David. It's Psalm 25. And here's what David wrote and sang to God.

"Show me your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. On you I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and your loving kindness, for they are from old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. But according to your mercy, remember me. For your goodness sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore He teaches sinners in His way. The humble He guides in justice. And the humble He teaches His way."

This song is the greatest example of true worship.

Praise God in song. Worship God in song. But that experience isn't just about standing and joining others in a musical experience.

True worship is on your knees before the throne of the awesome God, having Him connect to your mind and spirit, and being prepared for the truth. The truth that guides every step of your life.

To learn more about what God desires in your life read or download Transforming Your Life and find other helpful information about authentic praise and worship.