Definition:
Worship is an intentional act of bringing honor to God that flows from an attitude of submission to his authority.
• True worship springs forth from the depths of our souls.
• True worship must be from the heart, not merely an external or intellectual exercise. We cannot worship God with our flesh!
• Worship is given to God through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit – It is by the Holy Spirit that we worship God. So it stands to reason, if you have not received the Holy Spirit or baptism of the Holy Ghost – your worship is a lie.
Let’s look at four (4) reasons to show why we worship God!
WHY DO WE WORSHIP GOD?
There are many reasons why we need to worship God, the most important reason is that he is our creator. He is the master over all! Should we need any other reason to worship God? From the humanistic point of view, I will cover four important reasons to show why we worship God. Let’s begin with:
1. So that our hearts may be established in holiness.
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13:
12 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 13 May He, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.
Comment: Our hearts become stronger from the purity of our lives when purity abounds and blamelessness exists in abundance. Therefore, on judgment day you will become His holy people.
1 Thessalonians 4:7-8:
7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. 8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
2. To confront temptation. (ex. Suicide, idols, possessions – flesh, eye, pride).
Matthew 4:10:
10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.”
Comment: We worship God with reverent fear!
3. So that God can sanctify us entirely.
Let’s look at this word sanctify. What does sanctify mean, and why must God sanctify us?
SANCTIFY
Definition: to cleanse, purify or make holy; to separate or to be set apart.
In God’s (view) term – it means to cleanse from corruption, to purify from sin, to make holy by letting go and detaching yourself from the affections and defilements of the world, and consecrating your life to God.
Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:
23 Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. 24 God will make this happen, for He who calls you is faithful.
Comment: In every way God does not cleanse one area of our lives; He cleanses all areas. These two verses show us why we must be sanctified entirely – because it tells that we are a 3 part being. We have a spirit, soul, and body. All three must be sanctified not just one part but all three. Why is this important to God? As we will learn we worship God with our bodies through sacrificial living. We worship in spirit (our spirit), and we worship God with a pure heart, the inner most part of us; our soul.
How does the sanctification process work? Turn back to chapter 4 in 1 Thessalonians verses 1-11.
1 Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more. 2 For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and His ways. 6 Never harm or cheat a Christian brother in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. 7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. 8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you. 9 But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God Himself has taught you to love one another. 10 Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more. 11 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands just as we instructed you before.
4. To Flee Immorality.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20:
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by His power, just as He raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.