Worship Is An Experience

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters , in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-This is your true and proper worship. 2) Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind/ Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What do you think of when you hear the word WORSHIP? Right now we are all in church here to show our praise and glory for the LORD. So immediately we think of being in church. But let’s take this a little step further.

The definition of Worship means: (Verb) to honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power. (Noun) reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power also : an act of expressing such reverence

Reverence is to show a deep respect; so let’s come to the LORD as a family and experience the true meaning of worship. To do this we need to learn how to be come one as a congregation and be the living sacrifice and to allow the message about Christ and all He has to offer to fill our lives each day. Colossians 3:16 Let the message of Christ, dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, sing to GOD with gratitude in your hearts. Paul is describing to the church of Colossae to be people who are thankful, and be prepared to worship wholeheartedly. When we have gratitude in our heart it will open our heart to God’s peace and this will enable us to become the love he desires us to be. So each day let’s prepare our hearts for worship. How can we do this in our everyday life? Let’s start by taking inventory of our hearts as we prepare each day. Relationships, gifts, family and material possessions we have. By doing this each day we are preparing for Sunday as we come together to worship, making Sunday our day of celebration with the Lord, through songs of praise, lessons being taught, spiritual gifts being shared, financial gifts being shared, words of wisdom and encouragement given to one another as we pass the peace of Christ. Then we become the Living Sacrifice as described in Romans 12:1.

Each and every one of us are bringing something to the LORD on this day of worship; we have a desire to have a relationship with the LORD and continue to build on our relationship.

When I received this message from the Lord, through prayer and reflection I was thinking, WORSHIP?!? What do you want me to say about Worship? Then one night I prayed again, asking for HIS knowledge to help guide and direct me; I already had my scripture in mind so I kept praying and praying over the scripture when I finally received the wisdom from the Lord. I woke up and I was so excited, I kept saying over and over again, Worship is an experience not an obligation; a way to show reverence and praise to the Lord; a sacrifice of ourselves to the LORD. During my reading and research I also discovered there are 7 different ways to express yourself in worship.

1. Barak to kneel, to bless God, to bow down. It means to bow down or kneel before the Lord, it communicates that the Lord holds a place of importance and helps us remember just how great He is. (There will be times during communion when someone may be led to come to the kneeling rail and be in communion with the Lord through prayer.)

2. Halal to be clear, to shine, to boast, to show, to rave, to celebrate, to be clamorous foolish. In the old testament Halal is a form of worship mentioned 110 times. (Kind of sounds like a birthday celebration for an excited child. Just imagine how the Lord feels when He would hear the noise we can all make about him and all his glorious wonders.)

3. Shabach to shout loudly, to command its focus is to worship the Lord with one’s whole being. (And all the people responded AMEN! When you hear a message or a thought-provoking message which touched your heart wants to say AMEN!! Hallelujah!! Praise and Glory to the LORD!)

4. Tehillah to Sing praises, singing out of the spirit spontaneously. Sing unrehearsed, unplanned praises to the Lord. It can include adding words to an existing song or even singing in the spirit of the Lord. (During intensified prayer group, I have found myself humming, the song Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I am found. Displaying in the moment of adoration and praise to the LORD.)

5. Towdah extending hands, acting out of thanksgiving for what has or will be done (Psalms 50:23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation. What a blessed way to express ourselves with our hand lifting them up to give glory and praise, honor to our Lord and Savior for what has been or will be done)

6. Yadah extending the hand vigorously (be in complete surrender to the Lord, have you ever found yourself in the midst of a moment where the Lord keeps cracking at your heart, he is calling you but, you just want to go in the other direction, then all of a sudden you lift your arms and say, “I Surrender Lord, I hear your call!” During worship, we want to extending the praise and worship to the LORD, lift our hands point to the sky, place a hand on our heart so we can show an attitude of being reverent to our LORD and Savior.

7. Zamar to touch the strings, to make music with instruments mostly rejoicing. (Our Praise band and Choir leads us each Sunday morning, they have been given a gift to help lead us to bring the praises to the LORD. They prepare and share their spiritual gifts with us each week. Let’s help them out by being the hands to reach the praise and glory to the LORD let’s extend our arms and bring the praises to the LORD.)

In my lay ministry class I have 2 classmates from South Sudan, my experience with them has really opened my eyes to the ways of worship; when they bring the offering to the LORD, they are singing, dancing, clapping and rejoicing down the aisle because their sacrifice of giving to the Lord is made joyfully. Talk about making it an experience!

Take a moment, do an inventory of your heart, reflect on your day; evaluate and notice the moments where you have seen Jesus with you and times where you may have walked away or ignored the call. Then allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and find a moment to worship the Lord. Even Saturday night as you prepare for worship on Sunday, what are you going to bring with you to turn over to Christ, what praise is your heart going to reveal? The greatest honor we can give the Lord is being the sacrifice of thanksgiving by honoring and Praising Him for ALL THINGS.