Worship- A passionate verb
I. A reaction
II. A lifestyle
III. A choice

What is worship all about? It’s a word that we are familiar with, but I think that few of us have a grasp for what it truly means. We come to this place Wednesday after Wednesday and Sunday after Sunday and we lift our hands we sing songs, we here terms like “worship Him” or “give Him praise” what is it really all about? I believe that worship is more than just what we do when we come to church. It’s more than just lifting our hands and singing songs. And please don’t misunderstand me when I say that because, those things are a very big part of worship but they in themselves are not all there is to what the word means. So what is worship? There are three things that pop into my head when I here the word. The first is that of a reaction.
Now I want to say that (and this is going to step on some toes but,) we all worship something. The short video clip that we just showed says a great deal about this. Look at the things in your life you spend the most time on. It is different for everybody. One person may love sports and spend the vast majority of there time looking at sports heroes for identity, while still others spend there time on a relationship be it boyfriend-girlfriend or just friends type of relationship. These are merely examples. For me for the longest time it was about being on top in everything that I attempted. The dangerous thing about worship is “what ever you worship, you imitate; whatever you imitate, you become”.1” If you don’t like what you’re becoming, take an inventory right quick”.1 For me it became an unhealthy obsession that spilled into everything I did. I found a value for myself in what I worshiped. When people said “hey good job your #1 at this, congratulations” I heard this is what you are worth your identity. That was my reaction. Worship in general is a reaction. You see it all through out the story of God a.k.a. the Bible. Let’s look at the word.

Leviticus 9:23-24 (New International Version)
23 Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

Did you catch that it was a reaction to the “glory of the LORD appearing” the most amazing part of this scripture to me is “they shouted for joy and fell facedown.” It was an immediate reaction. When I was doing some research for the subject of worship I found that the most common reaction through out the story of God was that people hid themselves. Take a look in exodos.

Exodus 3:4-5 (New International Version)
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Moses just came into contact with the God of the universe, his reaction to hide for fear. Look at Isaiah

Isaiah 6:5 (New International Version)
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Isaiah saw a vision and in it was God. What was his reaction? He declared at that moment that he was unworthy to see such a thing and it doesn’t necessarily say this, but I believe he was terrified and wanted to hide. Still there is more, Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 1 (New International Version)
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Ezekiel dropped like a sack of bricks at “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD”. Then you have Mary carrying the unborn son of God Jesus in her womb. She meets up with her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist.

Luke 1:41 (New International Version)
41When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Here you have an unborn child that leaps for joy in the presence of God. What am I trying to get at here? The point I am trying to make is that the reaction everyone has to God is different. For some it’s a fearful one for others it’s a joyful one and still others it’s a mixture of the two. You can’t characterize worship as there really being a correct type. The second thing that comes to me is that worship as a lifestyle.
I know we have heard that a lot in church or maybe you haven’t but let’s take a look at it. There are two words in the bible that I found that explain worship, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. The first is from the old.

Abad-to actively serve, to work or to minister, or to serve another

The second comes from the New Testament, it’s a Greek word.

Proskuneo-to do reverence or homage by kissing the hand, or to adore.

“These two definitions, adoration and service hold each other in a creative tension”2. Now what I mean by that is that they reinforce one another. What in the world does this have to do with a lifestyle or a reaction? If you look at worship as a reaction then a lifestyle reflects the reaction. A lifestyle of worship is in a nutshell taking the things you do every day, the very life that you have been gifted with and presenting it to God as an offering. By doing this you serve Him and adore Him. My next question is what does God do with your life as an offering to him? Let’s revisit Leviticus.

24 Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering
He consumes the offering with his fire. He reveals Himself to you by his spirit. That’s why you see Paul in the New Testament so Gung hoe for God. The more he offers himself up as a sacrifice the more God consumes him. Now all this talk about worship brings me to a point. When I was younger I use to think “wow” God must be on an EGO TRIP with all this worship stuff, but what I have come to find out is that when we worship God and we tell him how great he is we aren’t telling him any thin he doesn’t already know. When we worship him verbally we are merely speaking the truth about him. God doesn’t need our worship he desires it. He made each one of us here uniquely different. And if he wanted all of us to worship him and react to him in the same manner he would have probably done things differently. I have always thought it amazing that he could command the very floor we stand on to worship him, but he doesn’t desire that. You worship Him. Why? Because “it’s the one thing no one else on this earth can give Him, Your unique affection.”1 What is the nature of a lifestyle of worship? This is described in Romans 12:1

Romans 12 (New International Version)
Living Sacrifices 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer (present) your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship

There are three words that stick out in this scripture. The first is offer or present. This word is military in origin and means to stand before a superior at attention. The second word is bodies. This indicates all of our physical beings “the sum total of everything we are physically, emotionally, intellectually, volitionally, and spiritually”2 The third word is sacrifice. This word has so many negative connotations in our world today. “We see sacrifice as giving up something that belongs to us at a great personal loss or inconvenience”2. Is this the biblical idea of sacrifice? Is it really that much of a great personal loss or inconvenience to give to God what is already his?

1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a: "...you are not your own? For you were bought with a price

God wants all of us, not just the little parts of our life that most of us give him access to. In doing so, in giving our all to him to be used we enter into A LIFESTYLE OF WORSHIP. So the question becomes do I give my all to him? Do I give my energies, my time, myself to him?

That brings us to what I alluded to earlier about “we all worship something” worship is a choice. God gives us all free will to choose. To bring it to terms that make more sense “would you rather hang out with someone because they were made to hang out with you or would you like to hang out with someone who genuinely wants to be around you for who you are? The latter I hope and it’s no different with God.
Derek said something last Wednesday night that made me think. He said is during praise and worship “sing it like its real” and to me that begs the questions, what would happen if you did? What would happen in your life if the worship that God so earnestly desires, you chose to give to him. God invites you into his presence every morning that you wake up; even now as we sit here he is inviting us to worship him. Every morning you wake you have the opportunity to worship the God of the universe. Worshiping God brings rest, because when you step back and say lord look what you have done and for that I Give you my all, the things you bring to worship with you melt away and what’s left?, You and Him. Will you choose him? Will you give him your all? He gave his all to you on the cross. What will you do? who will you worship.