Worship 1.0

Over the past 14-15 years I have off & on tried to define worship. More times than not I've attempted to put worship in a nice, shiny box and say, "Look, this is what worship is!" At the same time over the past 14-15 years the Holy Spirit has been convicting me that I don't get it either.

This has been a subject that I've tried to compartmentalize but realistically I do know that you can't compartmentalize worship. I've read books, listened to pod casts, bought the latest worship music, all in attempt to try and get a better grasp on how I can better define worship.

Several books that have helped me, somewhat, shape a definition of worship would be:

 

The Unquenchable worshipper by Matt Redman

 

Facedown by Matt Redman

 

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney

Worship: The Ultimate Priority by John MacArthur

While Redman is looking primarily through the lens of leading worship for thousands of people he still doesn't let that blind him to the element of personal worship that one can't separate from one's life.

Whitney, in his Spiritual Disciplines book, looks at the different aspects of worship.
This is where I have camped out and I am going to continue to camp out for a good portion of my study of worship.

MacArthur, really dives off into more of the theology of worship. He does this is a way of drawing you in and really taking a deeper look at how we need to be more intentional with our worship.

I have come to understand that Worship is a lifestyle. For each of us it starts when our eyes open in the morning and continues through out the day with everything that we do.

Matt Redman defines worship, roughly, as : A response from our heart to God.

For one reason or another that has stuck with me over the years. Simple, yes, but it has for some reason stayed packed in my grey matter.

I definitely think that he is on to something, but I don't think that worship can be defined in a one sentence tag line. I'm not bashing Matt Redman by any means, he is by far one of my favorite worship leaders. What I'm attempting to relay is that we as finite man, try over and over again to not only put God in a box, but we try and often succeed to put our side of the relationship with Him in a box.

We say that our worship can only be a certain way, that worship songs can only be one style, or one genre for that matter. If we haven't already we have to get the notion that worship is a "thing" worship is a lifestyle. Do we worship God in every aspect of our lives?

Worship derives from the old English word "worthship". Something of great worth. Something that is worth adoration, glory.

Why do we expect God to "give" us some kind of experience when we gather corporately, if we aren't living out lives of worth for Him?

We aren't willing to give up anything most of the time. We want everything we can get our hands on, and minds wrapped around. We want stuff, experiences, knowledge,etc... but we aren't willing to sacrifice anything on our part to take in all that God has in store for us. Why?

If we get down to the meat of it, we can see the same in Genesis 3, when the serpent deceived woman, and sin came into the world. The pride of wanting, without giving something up is still ingrained in every single person on the planet.

When we come to grasps that God wants the best for us, and listen to the Holy Spirit's calling we give up the pride that we can handle this world on our own, and realize that we need Him more than ever.

When we say that we are "worthy" of anything, we are adorning ourselves in worship.
Are we worthy of an education?
Are we worthy of a good paying job?
Are we Worthy of a great car?

If we are calling ourselves children of the King, then how can we sit here and say that we are "worthy" of anything. He is worthy of all honor, glory, praise. And until we can not only acknowledge that, but practice that in our lives. Then we may have the knowledge of it, but we don't believe it.

Do I believe that God helps people get an education, jobs, and cars? Yes, but why? If the reason is for anything other that His Glory, His Worth, then we've missed the picture.

Do I believe that I've defined worship? No  Do I believe that I live every aspect of my life to the Glory of God? No

But I do believe that Matt Redman is right in that worship is a response from our heart to God. We either tell Him everyday that He is worthy of all of our worship, or we tell Him something else deserves that worth.

You've Got a Friend in Me

Anyone from 7th - 12th grade and a few years either side of that recognizes the song lyric "You've Got a Friend in Me" from any of the Toy Story movies. In themselves they are pretty good entertainment, and they leave us with that statement of friendship that either we can relate to or we can struggle with.

Throughout history we (man) attach ourselves to people that are our peers and whether we are only tied to them because we share a classroom with them for the better part of our lives, or we share backyards with them through our childhood; we call them our friends.

Neither one of these two scenarios are bad in themselves, but if we really look at the Biblical model that we should take we should look within the home first and foremost.

Now I know that some people might try to argue, "Well my home life isn't great, I don't have great example that I can follow." Point taken. Obviously that observation has been made, and you've come to the point of acknowledging you need a better example. You wouldn't know that what you live in is a bad example if you haven't already witnessed a good example. Go to that good example.
There might be a family that you can connect with better than you own, great! I'm not telling you to abandon your family, but I am saying that if Godly counsel is not in your home, look for it the closest place you can find it.

Now parents this is for you: We are called to Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

That means that our relationship with our children has to be one that we know what is going on with them, we have to know their needs, their dreams, their struggles. And the hard part of that we may not can do anything about it. We may not can help fulfill those dreams, defeat those struggles, or meet those needs, but we serve a God who can.

Dad and mom, we are called to "Train" not raise, or rear even. (Which I know that rear is correct grammer) If we call on the Lord as our King, we are called to train our children up. So many times we just throw the blame of what they do against the scale of their age, and what does that do? It takes the blame off of us. What if we took responsibility for our child's actions, answered for them, and we had to pay the penalty? In our opinion that would royally stink. But that is what God is telling us through His word. He is telling us that it is our responsibility to teach our children how to live, and we do that by preparing them to be worshipers of the King.

Some of you parents might not relate to this. Some of you may say, I didn't get that as a child. Fine, you didn't get it, but you say that you are a Christian now. Then follow the word now!
2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if we are in Christ, know Him as Lord in a personal way, then we are a new creature through Him. Everything before that doesn't matter anymore. So if you were raised in a Christian home, but you are a Christian parent you are under obligation to pour into your child the ways of the Lord, not the ways of your parents no matter if they are Mr. Deacon, and Mrs. GA's or Mr. Drunk, and Mrs. Harlot.

We have to befriend our children, where they come to us before the run to their peers when they need guidance. Most people think that if we need to befriend our children it means that we need to entertain them, and their friends. Or we need to try to impress them with our style, or what we allow them to do/get away with. It doesn't matter what age, children will always be able to entertain themselves, and we need to impress in them the things of God, and guide them in the ways of God. We have to take every opportunity to pour into them the ways of God, rooted in the word of God. And going back to the statement I made about tossing blame on the age scale, the term Teenager is less than 100 years old. Technically my grandparents where never teenagers, according to society. (It was used in around 1938 for the first time during the Great Depression) Before that we used more of a Biblical model from childhood to manhood/womanhood.

We as society have tossed the idea of Training our children to be Biblical men and women. That is why they would rather go to talk to their friends that they make outside the home about their struggles, their needs, their dreams.

We need to win our children back to training them to be men and women for the Kingdom.

There are 2 resources that I have found that would be a good help, other than the Bible of course:

Raising a Modern-Day Joseph - Larry Fowler
Parenting with a Kingdom Purpose - Ken Hemphill & Richard Ross