Some great songs to prepare us to think about worship. Turn with me in your Bibles first off this evening to Psalm 95. Psalm 95 is where we’ll begin and it is where we’ll end as well.

Psalm 95, specifically verse six, says this, come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh, our maker. So tonight we will begin this series on worship. And as we begin a series on worship, I don’t intend to communicate the idea that we’re not good enough in our worship or we’re lacking in our understanding of worship. One of the things that I love about our church is the rich, deep worship that we have. We take worship very seriously here. And that’s something that is important. But I want to continue to pursue this idea so that we always have a right understanding of what it is that we do in our worship.

And so as we start this series, in this very first sermon, I want to really lay some groundwork and introduce the subject very basically. I want us to ask, what is worship? And it’s actually going to take us two weeks to complete this idea. But that’s where we’ll start, is what is worship?

As we think about the words we use when we talk about worship or when we are worshiping, when we sing or read, the things that we consider when we do these things, Do we really stop and think about what those words mean? Many of us can say and explain the right things, but do we really know what we’re talking about when we use words that we do in our worship? Like, for instance, we talk about knowing the Lord, as we should. We talk about talking to God in one way or another, or hearing from God through his word. We talk about worshiping God in our singing. We attend churches on Sunday, and we fellowship with one another and with God. We’ve heard all of those phrases before, but do we really consider the meaning that’s there?

As we gather on the Lord’s day, we celebrate the idea that He is our God through songs and hymns and the things that we do here on a Sunday. I hope that as we do this regularly, like we should, the regularity of it doesn’t turn into familiarity and lessen the importance of what we do. For example, when we come to the Lord’s table, we do that regularly, but not every week, and there’s different ways that churches do that, and there’s really no wrong way a church can decide how they do that, but as we do that, Are we considering the gravity of the thing that we’re doing? The same thing with when we have a baptism. Do we understand the reality of what is going on here? Do we take enough time to appreciate it?

Again, oftentimes worship itself can become routine. We are creatures of habit. We do things the same way often. Often we have a very similar worship order. We do two songs and then we do offering and a reading, and we have a very similar pattern every week, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but we don’t want it to become something that’s just ordinary to us. Our worship should be anything but routine. or ordinary. Because in our lives, we’re very busy, especially this day and age. We schedule out a lot of our lives, if not every minute of our lives. And we often have to schedule in worship into our lives. But does worship become just another activity on our calendar?

The God that we know, we speak of knowing and worshiping, He is the sovereign creator and Lord of the universe. He is the eternal and ever-living God. He is all-wise and all-powerful and ever-present. And our adoration and worship of Him must not be just an ordinary part of life. Our worship should be the most important and glorious and momentous activity of our week.

But sometimes we can miss the beauty and the majesty and the glory of worship if we don’t consider what it is that we’re doing as we worship the God of the universe. Really, as some have said before, we really need to be drawn out of our own world to focus on the creator of the world.

And so our worship, if it becomes too ordinary, it can become irrelevant in our daily lives. And that is not what worship ought to be. So throughout this series, we’ll be looking at different aspects of worship, and we’ll see biblical examples of these things, and we’ll look at how our worship today ought to reflect the principles of worship we see in the Bible.

Now, our worship today looks different than different times in history. For example, we don’t worship like the Israelites did with the Levitical priesthood and all the rituals and sacrifices and all those things. Those things have a lot to teach us about who God is and how He ought to be worshipped in our day and age.

So those are some of the things that we will consider as we look at aspects of things like worship in our own daily life, worship in our family life and what that ought to look like. Worship in the ordinances or reading of scripture and prayer and music and in all of the things that we think about when we worship the Lord. We’ll look at sacrifice and offerings and even the design of our worship services.

But first, I want to lay this foundation. I want to start with the basics. We’re going to look at the what of worship here tonight. And we’ll ask the question, like I mentioned earlier, what is worship? And then as we go in this series, we’ll look at the who of worship. Who is being worshiped, and who are the worshipers?

But tonight, we will first consider, as we’re thinking about what worship is, and how we ought to worship, we’ll first consider the consequence of worship. I think this is a good place to start when we think about worshiping God, is the places in scripture that are specifically given to us to instruct us on why it is we worship the way that we do.

And we’ll look at, as we consider the consequences of worship, then we’ll examine three biblical words that we use a lot But we really need to understand what they mean. And we’ll close with that. But first, we want to think about the consequence of our worship.

And typically when we think about worship, we think about music styles, right? That’s what comes to mind when we speak of worship. Usually the question about worship revolves around music and whether we should follow traditional style of worship with hymns and such, or more contemporary style. And this can have a lot of tension or conflict as you speak about worship styles, and it has over the years.

And usually congregations, as they consider their style of worship, different churches, they will respond to these questions in different ways, whether or not we should stay traditional or go more contemporary. And unfortunately, the ways that many churches respond to this are not good. Many churches have split over the issue of worship. Those who want more contemporary go one way, and those who don’t go another way, and they just create two different churches. Or a church might establish multiple worship services in which they do different styles in the same building, but at different times, and they, in effect, split themselves without splitting. because you’re creating multiple churches that gather in the same building at different times. They don’t worship together. Or some churches just go ahead with a more contemporary style and forget about those who would desire a more traditional style of worship.

And all of those responses and fights that have happened over the years, while they may have made worship more attractive to certain people, they really had devastating consequence on the theology and understanding of worship in the church. And as we look at some biblical examples, we’ll see a lot of the errors made in the Bible reflected in some of the responses to worship style controversies. And instead of worship uniting the people of God as it should, fighting over different styles divides the people of God and does the very opposite thing that worship ought to do.

And I want to suggest to you that if your concern in worship is the style of music in which you prefer, either traditional or contemporary or whatever it may be, you’re totally swinging and missing on what worship is. If your main concern is the type of music, the sound of the music that you’re hearing in the worship service, Your focus is not on worship at all.

So, as we think about worship, rather than considering our own preferences, how often do we consider what is acceptable to God in our worship? I mean, you do know that God is the one who makes the rules about worship. God is the one who says what goes and what doesn’t in worship. While we do have freedom in many areas, what is our motivating thought behind why we do what we do?

Again, I could show you many examples in scripture of consequences of worship and worshiping God incorrectly, but we’re going to look at just two here this evening. If you remember, if you’ve read it before, John MacArthur came out with a book probably 20 years ago now. called Strangefire. And in that book he, well, he held a conference and published this book addressing the errors of modern worship and specifically of the charismatic movement and some of the theological errors that they, that group tends to make. And he got the title for this book from an episode of improper worship in scripture. The title of it again was Strange Fire, and that is found in Leviticus 10.

So turn with me to Leviticus 10, because Leviticus 10 is a sometimes surprising but instructive episode of the worship of God. In Leviticus, we meet several of Aaron’s sons who were priests like their father. It was the family business as God had so designed. And the book of Leviticus is all about the Levites, as you would probably tell by the name. And it was about how they were to carry out the worship of God in their office as priests. They were the leaders of the worship of Israel, or for Israel, worship of God. They were the ones who would teach Israel who God is by the way that they worship. And this job, the job of a priest in Israel was a big deal, a very big deal.

So God gave them specific instructions on how he was to be worshiped. If you read through the whole book of Leviticus and see all the different specifics in their worship, what you won’t see is anything about their preferred style. Nothing there about what you prefer in worship. In fact, Leviticus 10 shows us what happens when you do consider your own preferences over what God has said.

In chapter nine of Leviticus, you see the first official day that this Israelite system of sacrifice was to be implemented, the very first day that they were to do what the book of Leviticus says. As God had described to them how they were to perform their duties as priests, and you see the different sacrifices. as they’re going through the rituals that they were to do there in chapter 9. And then you come to chapter 10. And chapter 10 is where you see it’s the turn of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu. The priests took turns in the duties that they performed, and now it comes to Nadab and Abihu, two sons of Levi, or two sons of Aaron, sorry.

And Nadab and Abihu, starting in verse one of chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans and put fire in them. And they placed incense on it and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. And we aren’t told specifically what they did wrong. But in some sense, they offered to God in their worship something that he did not tell them to do. It’s called strange fire, something he had not asked for. And there’s a lot of debate about what exactly this offense is. In fact, Jewish scholars have come up with 12 different theories on what these two brothers did wrong. And I’ll tell you, if there’s that many theories, then they have no idea what they’re talking about. And nobody really knows, because the exact offense is not the point. The point is, God commanded them very specifically what to do. And they did what he had not commanded. They took matters into their own hands, and went outside of his specific instruction. And there were severe consequences, because verse two says, and fire came out from the presence of Yahweh and consumed them, and they died before Yahweh. Boom. Done. No do-overs, no mulligans, no second chances. One wrong move, and they’re consumed.

And you might be thinking, well, that’s harsh. That’s a little bit of overkill, isn’t it? No, it wasn’t. Because Moses explains in verse three, it is what Yahweh spoke, saying, by those who come near me, I will be treated as holy. And before all the people, I will be glorified. So Aaron kept silent. Because Aaron knew Moses was right. This is what God said, and they didn’t do it, therefore, here we are. It wasn’t too harsh. God is that holy. And that’s the point. The whole point is, this is exactly what our minds ought to be thinking when we worship him. That God is this holy. He is so set apart, so different from us, so other than us, that we cannot approach God in our worship like we approach everything else. Our worship must be different because God is different.

Our whole lives we live with our preferences in mind. We do what we want, when we want, with whom we want. But worship is different. At least it should be. Our worship is not about us. My worship is not about me and what I want. Worship is about God and what most glorifies Him. This is what we see with the strange fire incident with Nadab and Abihu.

Another person I want you to think about in regard to worship is someone you probably weren’t thinking of when you heard me talk about this, and that is King Saul. King Saul. You know King Saul. He was the first king of Israel, and God chose him out of all the nation to be the first king. He stood a head taller than everybody else. He looked the part. But eventually, he had the kingdom taken from him and his descendants. It was given to David in his line. And do you know why the kingdom was taken from Saul? Turn with me to 1 Samuel 13.

1 Samuel 13. In 1 Samuel, we see Saul doing king things. Not only does he look the part, he plays the part pretty well. He is a great and mighty warrior. He defeats his enemies left and right, and God gives him those victories.

In the midst of fighting his enemies, he comes up against the Philistines. We read here in 1 Samuel 13, starting in verse 5. Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance. And they came up and they camped at Michmash east of Beth-Avon. Now the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait for the people were hard pressed. And the people hid themselves in caves and thickets and cliffs and cellars and in pits.

So the men of Israel are terrified. because of the opponent they now faced. This isn’t the JV squad anymore. Now we got the Philistines in front of us. And you can’t even number how many soldiers they have. And they have no idea what will happen.

But Saul should have known. Saul should have known what to do and what would happen because all of this was spelled out for him back in chapter 10. Believe it or not, Saul actually had it pretty easy. He had a guy telling him what to do the whole time. He had Samuel. And Samuel told him everything he ought to be doing as king in 1 Samuel chapter 10. In verse eight, it says, he tells him specifically what’s going to happen. He says, you shall go down before me to Gilgal and behold, I will come down to you and offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and to make known to you what to do. It’s pretty simple. It’s very specific instructions. Go to Gilgal, wait seven days, I’ll be there, we’ll go from there.

So Saul goes. In chapter 11, Saul gathers his men and heads to Gilgal. And then in chapter 13, that’s exactly where they are. We keep reading in 1 Samuel 13 here, verse seven. Also, some of the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. But as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. So he waited seven days. according to the appointed time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him.

Saul had been told what to do. Go to Gilgal, wait seven days, and Samuel will come. But Saul’s getting impatient, and so are the people, because Samuel wasn’t there right at the moment he expected him. They’re complaining. They’re leaving. So what does Saul do? Verse nine, so Saul said, bring here to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings, and he offered the burnt offering. Uh-oh, that’s not what he’s supposed to do. Remember what we read about Nadab and Abihu and doing things their own way and not God’s way? Well, just like them, Saul was told what to do and he did not obey. Samuel said, I will come. and make these offerings, and then we will see what to do.

And not only that, verse 10, as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. As soon as he was done doing what he wasn’t supposed to do, Samuel shows up. It’s like when you were a kid and you knew you were doing something you weren’t supposed to do, but mom and dad aren’t around. They’ll never know. They always showed up, didn’t they? Funny way those things happen, and that’s what happens with Saul and Samuel. He took matters into his own hands. He couldn’t wait anymore. Samuel’s not coming. We’ve got to figure this out ourself. He should have just waited.

So Samuel confronts him about it, and look at what Saul does. Verse 11, Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of Yahweh. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.”

You see, Samuel, what had happened was you weren’t here on time. You were supposed to be here and you weren’t here and they weren’t liking me anymore. The people were leaving. So basically it’s your fault Samuel. Don’t look at me. Not my fault. And the last line here. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. I mean the nerve of this guy. I forced myself to do it. I wanted what I wanted from God, and you weren’t here to get me what I wanted, so I did my own thing, and it’s your fault.”

Part of the problem was that he wasn’t a priest like Samuel, so he wasn’t authorized to do this duty of sacrifice. The priests were to be the ones sacrificing, but that’s part of the problem. And actually, it’s a small part of the problem. Because the real issue here is Saul’s view of God. Because notice the reason why Saul had to sacrifice. The Philistines were coming down against me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of Yahweh. I had not entreated the favor of Yahweh. I haven’t danced the rain dance to make God happy and give me what I want. I haven’t appeased the gods. Saul sounds like the pagan nations around him. Oh, if we make God happy, then we’ll get what we want. He had a completely wrong perspective on what worship was. because he had a completely wrong perspective on who God was. Like you had to win him over and make him happy, and if you offered enough sacrifice, then God will do what I want him to do. That is worship that is all about you and getting what you want, not about God.

And the sad thing is that this type of worship, this perspective on worship, is rampant in churches today, in all sorts of churches. The idea is that we come to worship God, and we worship, and we worship, and we worship, and then he’ll pour down his presence on us, and then he’ll fill us, and then we’ll really feel the Spirit, and then we’ll really be in the worship mood. That’s what Saul’s doing, in treating the favor of Yahweh. If I do this, then He’ll respond to me. That is not what worship is. This idea that you can work up something that will please God and then He will respond to me. If you come and sing the words and do the right things and name it and claim it, then God has to respond to me. He’ll give me health and wealth and all the success and money that I want. This is in treating the favor of Yahweh. And it’s nothing like what God asks for in worship. This isn’t worship.

And this had disastrous consequences for Saul. Look at the next verses. Verse 13. After he talks about entreating this favor from God and blaming Samuel, Samuel says to Saul, you have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. Yahweh has sought out for himself a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him as a ruler over his people, because you have not kept what Yahweh commanded you.

Saul had the kingdom taken away for this. for a wrong view of worship and a wrong view of God. But he worshiped. Isn’t that what counts? He offered the burnt offering. He said the words. He did the thing. But he did not obey what Yahweh had commanded him. And he lost the kingdom.

And Saul still doesn’t get it. Because if you flip over a page or two to chapter 15, when God tells him to wipe out the Amalekites. And yet Saul thought it would be a better idea to keep King Agag as his pet. And again, Samuel confronts him about it. In Saul’s answer in verses 20 and 21 of chapter 15, Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of Yahweh. And I went on the way which Yahweh sent me and brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the choicest things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God at Gilgal.”

No, no, no. See, Samuel, we mostly obeyed. We did just about everything. But we had a better idea. We figured we could take some of the good stuff and we’ll offer that to God, at least some of it, and that’ll make him happy. Isn’t that a great idea? And listen to what he says, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God. Not our God, not my God, Samuel’s God. Well, Saul had that much right.

Listen to Samuel’s response to Saul. Verse 22, Samuel said, “‘Has Yahweh as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, He has also rejected you from being king.

He did it again. Worshiping God is not just about going through the motions and doing the right things. It’s about showing a heart of submission and obedience. Behold, it is better to obey than to sacrifice. That’s what worship is all about. Sacrifice is required, but that’s not everything. And there are several other places we could go, but you get the point. Worship is a big deal to God, and He cares about how we worship and how we think about worship. There are consequences to our worship because it affects how we think about God. just like Saul. So those are the consequences of worship.

And with the remainder of our time, I want to look at a few biblical words that will help us build a foundation for understanding what worship is. I’ve used some of these words already, but we’ll look at the words. We use them often, and we hear them, and we generally know what they mean, but do we consider how significant they are for us and what the real meaning behind them is. So we’re going to look at three words, the word holy, the word glory, and then the word worship. Those are the three words we will look at as we spend the rest of our time here this evening.

So the first one is the word holy. And as we’ve seen, to worship God correctly, we need to understand God. And the greater our appreciation and understanding of who God is, and the God that we say that we worship, the greater our reverence and adoration and submission and service will be. This is the effect we find in scripture on those who rightly worship God.

Whenever the God of the Bible and the glory is revealed, One example of this is in the account of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter six. So turn with me to Isaiah six. We sang the song that reflects this passage of scripture earlier, but in Isaiah six, we see a picture of worship, and it’s worship in the throne room of God in heaven.

Starting in verse one of Isaiah chapter six, in the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robes filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings, and with two He covered His face, with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. The foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God was filling with smoke.”

It’s quite a scene. It starts with a revelation of God. Here is Isaiah. I’m sure he has a lot on his mind, given that the king just died. There’s a lot of unknown. Who would be the next king? Would he be a good king or a bad king? But then he’s given this glorious vision that helps him put into perspective his life, the troubles he faces and the task he is called to momentarily. And it does inspire the right submission and adoration that is required in worship.

And this vision, again, prepared Isaiah for the life that he would live. And so given this revelation of God in a vision, to see God as he is, it leads to a response in verse five. Then I, meaning Isaiah, then I said, woe is me, for I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king. Yahweh of hosts.

This is what worship is. It is a response to God’s revelation of himself to us. Isaiah saw that God was holy, and his response was worship. God is totally different than me, and I have no right to be here. Woe is me. Who am I to be before this holy God? His response was worship. And as we see the revelation of God, if we respond like Isaiah did, we too will be transformed into proper worshipers. We may not see exactly what he saw, but we have far more revelation than Isaiah ever did. And the revelation we have focuses on the very same Yahweh God enthroned before Isaiah’s eyes.

So holiness has a lot to do with our perspective of worship. Another place you see this is in the throne room of worship in Revelation 4. The four living creatures, Revelation 4 verse 8, each one of them had six wings and are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.

They’re still singing the same song. Holy, holy, holy. What does holy mean? What does holy mean? Often we think of it as sinless. And in regard to sin, yes, holiness is a complete sinlessness. No sin at all, unlike us. Totally set apart, holy, distinct from us in regard to sin. But God’s holiness applies to more than just sin. By itself, the word that’s translated as holy simply means set apart, or unique, or distinct. Theologians have tried to come up with a better word than holy, but they just can’t. It has a wide range of use in the Bible, but essentially it describes anything that might be set apart, or different, or sacred. Things set apart for a specific reason. For example, in the Pentateuch, as you read the different rituals and requirements for worship, there would be, for example, a bowl that was set apart as holy, which meant the only thing you could use this bowl for is the worship of God. That bowl is holy, it is set apart, it is distinct. And it could not be used for ordinary or common means.

A helpful way to understand the word holy is to understand its opposite, which is often the word profane. Now, often when we hear the word profane, we think of vulgarity or something just totally awful. But really, the word profane simply means common, not holy. It refers to anything that’s common or ordinary, or we use the word secular often. There’s what is sacred and what is secular. what is holy and what is profane.

To say that God is holy is to ascribe to Him a complete uniqueness, a distinctness. He is totally separate from us in every way. Isaiah 57 verse 15 really gets a good picture of this for us. It says, For thus says the one high and lifted up who dwells forever, whose name is holy. This is what he says. I dwell on high and I dwell on a high and holy place. And also with the crushed and lowly of spirit in order to receive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed.

God dwells high and holy out of our reach. He is that distinct. And yet, he dwells with the crushed in spirit. He comes down to us. This is what makes our communion with God so incredible. This God who is totally different and distinct and other than us makes the effort to know us. And he delights to dwell with us. There’s a lot more we could go into about God’s holiness, but just as a brief summary of this word, this is what should be the motivating factor in our worship, that God is holy. He is totally different than us, and we have absolutely no right to even worship him. And yet, he allows us to do so. How could we not be full of thankfulness that He has chosen to know us and to dwell with us, to love us? That is the word holy and how it motivates our worship.

Another word that I want to think about is the word glory. Glory is a word we use a lot. It’s a word we sing a lot. We read it a lot. But what is glory? In Isaiah’s vision, the angels also proclaim that the whole earth is full of his glory. But what is that? Well, in the Bible, the glory of the Lord is the manifestation or the revelation of God’s presence. Think about it this way, as one Bible scholar, Alan Ross, puts it this way. To talk about God’s holiness, which we just did, is to speak about His essential nature, that essentially He’s different than us. But to speak about God’s glory is to declare His importance or the display of that importance in history and in creation. So His holiness is His uniqueness. He’s totally different. He’s other than us. But His glory is His importance. When we glorify God, we show His importance to us.

The noun translated as glory comes from a word that means to be heavy or significant. It means that it’s important to us. It carries a lot of weight for us, the glory of God. There’s different ways it’s used. In fact, in Psalm 30, verse 12, it speaks of our own glory. Each human has glory or importance. Psalm 30, verse 12, that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent. Oh, Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever. That my glory would sing to you. That what makes me important would point to you. So glory is what gives a person importance. For example, another place, Psalm 49 verse 16, don’t be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. When a man becomes rich, he becomes more important. It’s the way of the world. So when he becomes rich, the glory of his house increases.

Or in 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul says that the woman is the glory of a man. A good woman gives a man importance, and a bad one has the opposite effect. Everyone has this inner glory or importance because we’re image bearers. That’s where we get our importance from.

But the Lord, Yahweh God, has a level of importance far greater than anything else. So to speak of God’s holiness is to say there’s no one like him. That He is absolutely set apart and distinct in His power and perfection. But to speak of God’s glory is to say that He is most important in His existence. He is preeminent is a word that’s often used. That’s His glory. He is most important. And the whole universe is filled with His importance. His glory.

So when we talk about glorifying God, let’s make this, give this a little bit of legs. Make this relevant to us as we think about the glory of God. When we talk about glorifying God, we’re talking about showing how important He is to us. Now think about that in relation to our worship. Do we show how important He is to us? as we worship? Is that what we’re doing? When we sing the songs and when we read and when we hear the word preached, are we thinking about how important God is to me? Are we showing how important God is to me? Is that where my mind is as we look at the screen and sing the words? How important God is to me? and the words that we say and the songs that we sing and our attitudes, and not just that he’s important to me because I’m irrelevant. He’s just important. Whether I am in the equation or not, God will get glory because of who he is.

Do we glorify God in our thoughts as we speak or sing the words in our worship? In what we choose to do on the Lord’s day, are we revealing that God is most important to us? Oh, but I had something really important to do. Important. Hmm. In what I choose to do on a daily basis. Am I showing that He has the most importance in my life? Or does something else have more importance at different times or moments? Am I giving something else more glory? We don’t speak that way. Am I glorifying something else, someone else in my choices, in my attitudes, in my actions?

We’ll think and talk about this more in the coming weeks, but glory means importance. And we need that understanding as we think about our worship. And lastly this evening, the last word I want to think about is the word worship. We are asking what worship is. After all, what does worship mean? And this will go into the next sermon as we flesh this out a little more. But just to give us a base understanding of the word worship, The English word that we use, worship, it really comes from two English words that we put together. And that’s the word worth, and a word that was used in older, ancient times, the word ship, or we say honor. So when we worship someone, we are showing that they are worthy of honor, is basically what that word means. So worship involves one person recognizing another person’s importance or honor or status greater than themselves. It’s recognizing someone else as superior to me. Worship, in fact, was often used in the recognition of different monarchs or rulers, like people would worship the king. It didn’t always mean they were worshiping him as a deity or a god. They were just showing him the honor he deserved.

So let’s go back to where we started in Psalm 95, verse six. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh our maker. So if worship is showing that someone else is more superior than me, What better way to do that than to bow down or to kneel before our maker? So in other words, let me visibly show that God is worthy of honor in my life, that he is superior to me.

We’ll, again, dig into this more next time, but our English Bibles translate several different words simply as worship in different places. In fact, that verse I just read contains three of them, Psalm 95, 6. There are three words in that verse that can be translated simply as worship, but it’s a little awkward to do that in English because it would say, come let us worship and worship, let us worship before Yahweh our maker. It doesn’t flow very well, but those words kneel down, bow down. They’re sometimes just translated as worship, which reflects what that word means.

So there’s a lot that goes into this idea, and all the words that the Bible uses to speak of worship, interestingly, they refer to someone else’s honor or importance, and they very rarely, if ever, speak of praise or music. The word for worship, the words used for worship, generally are not speaking about praise or music. They’re speaking about other things, other actions, other attitudes.

And as we study this, we’ll see three categories of worship, and we’ll give a little spoiler for next time. We see three categories of worship, which are worship as attitude, worship as action, and then worship as ritual. I couldn’t think of another A word that would communicate, so two out of three. But again, to recap what we’ve introduced here as we think about worship and as we’ve looked at what the Bible says on an introductory level about worship, first we consider the consequences. Our worship has consequences because it affects how we think of God. He is a holy God. He is totally set apart and other than and unique from us. And while He’s totally set apart from us, He still chose to be with us, to love us, to send His only Son to die for us, just so that we could know Him. And whoever believes in Him will have eternal life with Him. And that alone makes Him worthy of our worship for eternity.

And our worship ought to be our response to who He is and what He has done already, not an expectation of what He will do for me now. He’s done enough. My worship is a response to what has already been done. Our worship should bring Him glory or show His importance. Not just on Sundays in the Lord’s house, but every day my life should reflect that God is important.

So as we close this evening, as we consider this series that we will be going through the next several weeks and months, Does our worship bring Him most glory? The most importance? Does our life show that He has most importance? In everything. In every word we say. Every choice we make. In what we prioritize every day. On the Lord’s day. And lastly, Our worship is what we do to show that He is worthy of honor. We ought to think about that as we worship.

So next time we’ll dig even deeper, but let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this evening.

Our God in heaven, as we consider these deep and weighty doctrines, we think about what it is that we do when we worship, what your word has to say to us about who you are and then how we should then respond to that. I pray that our attitude will always be one of humility as we recognize how completely holy you are in every way, that we have no right of our own to worship you, and yet you invite us to yourself, into your presence, to worship our creator. God, we thank you for who you are. We pray that our minds would be more molded into a correct understanding of who you are and how we should worship you, and more molded into the image of Christ. As we go from here, help us to remember these things, and we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.