"What is Worship?" Week 1

This Sunday, Pastor Jake launched our new series, What Is Worship? In Week 1, he unpacked the foundation of worship — not as a song we sing, but as a response to who God is and what He has done. Dive into this message and discover how worship shapes our hearts, our habits, and our walk with Jesus.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world. We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before. Now, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Man, uh I will tell you, I almost just axed my whole sermon and just came up during worship. It was like, let's just kind of keep going. It was good, right? Imagine that the Lord makes worship good when we're starting a series on worship. Come on. Um listen. Yeah, we could clap for Jesus. We can give him a praise. That's all right, yes. Listen, um, you know, last week, if you weren't here last week, we did something kind of neat. We had three communicators, three uh people that are in our pastoral residency here at Manna Church, Ben Honaker, Brett Waltz, and Heather Martin, who you heard during hosting, they came up and each of them shared kind of a 10-minute encouragement. It was really cool. Um, I was so proud of them last week. If you didn't get a chance to see it, I encourage you to go back and watch it. It was a good word. Um, it was really a consistent word, too, for all three of them. But uh it speaks to the heart of what we do here at Mana. We we don't want to just fill your head with knowledge, we actually want to equip your hands to do the work of the ministry. We say that we're an equipping church. And and during this series, one of the things that we want to do is we don't just want to teach you about worship, we want to give you an opportunity to experience it. You know, like if you went to football camp and the coach sat down and he said, Okay, we're gonna run this play. This is what the split option veer looks like, you're gonna run this, hey, this is what a hitch route looks like, and he shows it to you on paper, he talks all about it, and then he says, Okay, practice is over, and you leave. That would be a little bit dissatisfying, wouldn't it? You would want to get in and kind of do the plays. You'd want to run the plays, you'd want to get some experience, and so we we don't just want to put things in your head, we want to put things in your hands. We believe uh during Growth Track we talk about this. The church is not just a teaching center, it is a training center. And so we're gonna have some opportunities during each one of these three weeks to really get in to worship. And what I hope happens is that we hit a growth spurt as a church. So uh so what is worship? What is it? What does it really mean? If have you thought about that word, as I thought about it, it was a little bit difficult for me to um to define because I think the way that we use the term worship in our modern language, more often than not, it just means kind of to gather. I'm just gonna go to worship. Hey, where did you worship today? Are you gonna join us for worship this week? That's the way that we use it. And I think we could misuse the term if we're not careful and actually think that we're doing it when we're not because we don't understand what the term means. Amen? You know, this happens with a lot of words when we uh we get some distance between when it was first used and we apply it in modern culture. Um I'll give you a couple examples. One of them, you ever heard of the phrase eat some humble pie? Yeah, it's like when someone has been a little bit arrogant and they get put in their place, it's like, yeah, you just you better eat some humble pie. Where that comes from was back in the day, medieval times, you had wealthy lords that would eat, you know, delicious meats. You guys know uh Texas de Brazil, I love me some delicious meats. But um, the lords would eat all the delicious meats, and then they would give the umbles, U-M-B-L-E-S, the umbles to the peasants, and they would make a pie out of it, and that's what they ate because they were poor. Doesn't really mean the same thing now. Or another one, this is a good one. Um, it's debated on what the full etymology of it is, but you ever heard the term blood is thicker than water? Right? My dad used to tell me that. He would tell me that when I want to go hang out with my friends or when my sister did something silly and I didn't stick up for her in school, and he'd be like, hey, blood's thicker than water, son. Like, take care of your sister. We use that to mean that family bonds are more important than bonds that we have with the world. Actually, many people believe that the etymology of that was flipped backwards because it originally meant when you shed blood in battle, the the blood of a covenant with somebody is stronger than the water of the womb that you share with the person. So the further away you get from the original meaning of that, it actually gets totally flip-flopped, and we use it completely differently than what it was originally intended to be used. Kind of crazy. So when it comes to worship, man, I would hate it if we use the word the wrong way, and then we thought we were doing worship this whole time, but we actually never really did it. That would be upsetting. That would be frustrating. Worship is a verb, it's an action. I mean, what if what if worship, as defined by the word, meant something that you thought would be crazy? What if worship meant, you know, shaving your head and taking a vow of poverty? What if worship, not not everybody in here is a musician. What if worship only meant playing the guitar? What if worship only meant singing? Some of y'all couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. You know? You're like, man, you're glad that the word says make a joyful noise to the Lord, because that's about all you can do. It just be joyful when you make some noise. You know? What if that's what worship meant is you had to sing really well and you never experienced worship because you couldn't do it. What I hope to do during the series and really nail today is to define what worship is for us and set a foundation for the rest of the series, and hopefully a foundation for your life that you can build on to make sure that you are truly and purely worshiping God. So I'll define it for you here. This is this is Pastor Jake's definition. Worship is a posture of our heart that can find expression in every facet of our life. It's a posture of our heart that can find expression in every single facet of our lives. And we should all agree worship is only ever used in reference to a deity, right? Like we never use worship. If I were to use worship for my favorite football team, the Denver Broncos. That wouldn't make any sense, would it? That would be silly. Or if I was to use worship in reference to my favorite food, that would be silly. Or if I was even to use worship in reference to a person, you know that I would just be saying something hyperbolic that I wouldn't actually mean it. It would just be kind of a metaphor, right? So worship, we only ever use it, it's only ever appropriate when it's directed towards God. And I'll give you some examples. We see this in the Word. The Word actually teaches us this truth. Acts chapter 10, 25 and 26. Peter is called to go minister to this Gentile Cornelius. He's called to share the gospel with him. And here's what it says Peter enters Cornelius' house. Cornelius met him and fell down. Somebody say, fell down. Fell down, he fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. Don't do that. Don't worship me. It's not appropriate. Another example. You got Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas have this amazing healing that they do. Acts chapter 14, it says, When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Laconian, The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And the priests of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. They're starting a worship experience right there. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of like nature with you. Do not worship us. Again, worship is only appropriate when directed towards God. They objected because they were the object and not God. God's always the object of worship. In fact, when God is not the object of worship and men start to receive it, bad things happen. Another example in Acts, Acts chapter 12, verse 21, it says, On an appointed day, Herod, Herod was a king of the region, not the same Herod who, when Jesus was born, he tried to have him killed. It's a different Herod, a successor. When Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat on the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people, they started to worship him, shouting, The voice of a God and not of a man. Such a great speaker! You must be a God. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. Amen. Because the only appropriate object of worship is God. He's all powerful. And y'all, he don't share worship. He doesn't share it. He's a jealous God, rightly so. There's some things that are only meant for him, just like in your marriage relationship, there's some things only meant for husband and wife. You don't share that. And if one of you did share that with some other people, it's right to be jealous. Worship is only directed towards God, and it's right for him to be jealous. And it's one of the ways that we know Jesus was different from every other man, is because when Jesus received worship, there was a different response. Look at this. Matthew 14, after Jesus calmed the winds and the waves, those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you're the Son of God. He didn't stop them. They didn't get eaten up by worms. Jesus didn't get eaten up by worms. He received worship. Another one, John 9, 38, after he healed a blind man, the guy said to him, Lord, I believed, and he worshiped him. He worshiped Jesus. Another example. This is one we're all really familiar with. Luke 19, verse 37. This is when Jesus is coming in. We call it the triumphal entry. He's coming in for Passover before he's later to be crucified, resurrected. As he's drawing near, already on his way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples begin to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. They knew worship only goes to God. And Jesus said, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. He's saying, I'm worthy of worship, and I will receive worship. So notice all of these examples, when it says people worshiped Paul, Barnabas, Peter, Jesus, even Herod, what did it look like? I'm gonna say something that's mildly provocative here. Did it look like this? Did it look like this? What they were doing, the examples that I just gave you? Did you see anything in any of these examples I just read that involved instruments? Did you see anything in the examples that I gave that involved songs? Did you see anything when when again when worship is happening that involved someone standing up and talking at you? Did you see anything that involved a nice coffee cart with snacks? Good man of kids experience. Did you see any of that here? So what was it? What what did worship look like? I'll tell you, this is what it looked like, in case you missed it. It looked like this. Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! That's what it looked like. It looked like this. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's what worship looked like in these examples. It was a little different. It was reverent. It was powerful. It was humble. It was directed at one object. And the outward expressions, they're a little bit different, but there's a consistency here that we gotta pull out and we gotta make sure we don't miss because the heart posture in every single one of these moments is a heart posture of reverence. So I'll just just think about this a little bit. I want to be a little bit provocative with us because I want us to really get this. How many moments of reverence toward God do you think you have in a given week? True reverence. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, bowing down, getting humble, getting small, focusing completely on him. How many moments like that do you have? One a week, maybe? One a month? Maybe? So common thread throughout all of these examples is expression. Worship isn't stale, it's not this dry, kind of sanitized experience. It's deep, it's moving, it involves our posture, it's this intimate expression of love between you and your heavenly father. Again, I'll just look at that definition one more time. Worship, it's a posture of our heart that finds expression in every facet of our existence. It's not something that we're supposed to take lightly. We don't just phone it in on Sunday or any other day of the week, by the way. You know, there's actually worship, there's expressions of worship, of your adoration, of your love that are not acceptable to God. Did you know that? But there are ways that you might be saying, I really want to express my love this way, and God's like, um, actually, I have a version of worship that I want to receive. You know, it's like love languages and spouses. I talked about this a little bit last week, where, you know, your spouse gets to decide how they feel loved. That's their prerogative. You know, like my wife, I'm a physical touch guy, words of affirmation, that's my thing. I could tell her I love her till I'm blue in the face. She's like, why don't you show me you love me by doing the dishes? Right? And she gets to decide. That's what that's what moves her heart. God gets to decide what moves his heart. He defines what is acceptable worship. And he tells us, through the apostle in the book of Hebrews, what he's looking for. This is what it says. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that can't be shaken. That's good. I like that. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship. Again, which implies there is unacceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. We have discretion, we have caution. We even have fear, holy fear of the Lord when we come in to worship Him. Worship, it shouldn't be done lightly. We don't come in here with flipping hearts. We should be serious when we come to worship God. It doesn't mean we can't have some joviality, it doesn't mean we can't smile, it doesn't mean we can't have fun. We do that, okay? But but I think sometimes, and especially in the whole non-denom realm, it's easy for us to just be so casual with our worship. It's a time for serious focus on God. And I think if we don't give these times of intimacy their due, we can actually cheapen the moment. And you know this, you can think of times that were supposed to be serious in your life, like really powerful moments. And if you were just kind of casual with it, it wouldn't make it as meaningful. And that's how worship should be when it comes to God. Because what I don't want to do is I don't want to inadvertently alienate the one that I'm trying to praise. Amen? You guys still with me?

unknown 17:08

All right.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

So what does awe-inspired worship look like? What is reverent worship look like? Like that verse says, worship the Lord with reverence and offer, our God is a consuming fire. I think it can be difficult to define, and sometimes it's easy to define things. Have you ever been to the doctor and you've got this condition? There's some conditions they can only figure out by excluding other things. I think sometimes we can define what reverence and awe look like by excluding other things. I can tell you this reverent and awe-inspired worship doesn't look bored. Doesn't look bored, doesn't look disinterested, it doesn't look angry, it doesn't look distracted. It's not late. Awe-inspired, think about it, awe-inspired worship? Is it like you just kind of strolling whenever? And I'm not, I'm not trying to pick on people. I'm just I'm just explaining what, like trying to get your head space in the right spot. What does it look like? It's not preoccupied with the worries of the week. And again, if you think about this, we still haven't even touched on standing in rows, playing instruments, singing songs, and hearing somebody talk at you. We haven't even touched that. And we've been talking about worship this whole time. What's that mean? Are we doing it wrong? Maybe. Or maybe we have just not appropriately labeled what we're doing here. Or maybe there's some of us who are doing it, and there's some of us who are not. I want to look at another passage in the New Testament, and we're gonna get to the Old Testament too, that defines what true and proper worship is. If if if I could find that out, if I could tell you what true and proper worship is, that I would want to know that, right? Would you agree with me? You want to know that? Yeah. Okay, let's see what it says. New Testament, Romans chapter 12, fantastic letter from Paul. High theology says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers. If you're gonna urge somebody, it's because it's urgent. He's urging them, brothers and sisters, all of you, not just the guys, not just the ladies, everybody, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. That's what's true and proper is offering your body as a living sacrifice. What in the heck does that mean? What's it mean? Are we talking about human sacrifice in church now? About to. He's not talking about dead sacrifices, though. He's talking about a living sacrifice. So I can't help but look at the correlation between this passage and the first mention of worship in the Word. One of the laws that we have when we hermeneutics, it's a it's the way that we study the Bible. And one of the rules of hermeneutics is called the law of first mention. And so when you're trying to understand what something means, you want to go back to the first time it was mentioned. For instance, if you want to know what marriage means, if you look at how marriage gets explained in the Bible, you need to go back to the first time marriage is mentioned, which is in Genesis 2. So every other example of marriage, every other weird combination and permutation that we try to make marriage these days, if it doesn't align with Genesis 2, a man and a woman, a man, a woman, then it's probably not accurate. So, so in the same way, we do that with everything that's mentioned the first time in the Bible. We go back to the first mention. So the first mention of worship is actually 4,000 years earlier, we have Abraham. It's the first time we see worship in the Bible. And it's not in reference to a sermon, it's not in reference to a song, it's not a dance, it's not even a gathering. First example of worship, let's hit this. So we're gonna camp for the rest of our time. Genesis 22. It says, After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. That's it for a second. Offer him. Him, your son, whom you love, go on a road trip with him and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I shall tell you. This is a crazy request, not even a lot of details. Burn your son. This is nuts. Verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac, whom he dearly loved, by the way. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. This is this is wild, wild, wild obedience. And if you want to know what the love language of God is, it's obedience. It's what we talked about last week. On the third day, Abram lifted his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, This is important. Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship. The word there is Shekah, it's an important word. And come again to you. Now, you may say this is nuts, Jake. Abram's going to offer up his son, whom he loves. How is the Bible okay with this? The key is actually in that verse. He said, I and the boy will go over to Shekah. We're going to go over, worship that the translation of that means we're going to go bow down. And we will come back to you. Notice, he was expecting Isaac to come back. He wasn't being disobedient, but he had a promise of God. God had told him, You're going to bless, you're going to be blessed, and you're going to bless the entire earth through Isaac. Not through Ishmael. You tried to do it on your own. Isaac is the pathway. And it says Abraham believed God and it was countered to him as righteousness. So Abram couldn't synthesize what's happening here, but God is telling me to do this here. So he just obeyed. He just worshiped. Verse 6. So they went both of them together. Isaac's confused. He says to his father, My father, he said, Here I am, my son. I can't imagine this moment. I have four sons and two daughters. I cannot imagine this. He said, Behold, the fire in the wood. Where's the lamb for the burnt offering? Abram said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. Quick aside here. When God's asking you to offer something, it's not because he needs your stuff. God's not asking for Isaac because he needs Isaac as a burnt offering in order to get the job done. God's asking for you to give him your stuff because he doesn't want it to have any place in your heart over him. He wants to take away anything that's going to rob him of worship and is going to rob you of the blessing of worshiping him because there is blessing on the other side of worship. God's not needy. So they went both of them together and they came to the place of which God had told them. Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son. Then want to make sure that he couldn't wiggle out. It's crazy. Laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand. He took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, Here I am. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you've not withheld your son, your only son from me. There's this moment that Abram's in. If you've ever been there, if you've ever offered something that's super precious to God, if you've ever given him your all, and just said, like, Lord, I don't know if this is ever going to come back to me, but I'm giving it to you. I have these promises from you, but but you asked for this, so I'm going to yield it to you. I've had some of those moments, and there's a couple times where the Holy Spirit has spoken to me past that, and he said, You passed. And he's returned to me what I've given. It doesn't happen all the time, but there's this moment that Abram has where God's like, You passed. This was the test. I wanted to see where your heart was. I think it was as much for Abraham as it was for God. For him to know, I have this resolve that I'm committed to God no matter what. Abram lifted up his eyes, verse 13, and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And Abram went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. This is worship. That's what's happening here. Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And an angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I've sworn, declares the Lord, because if you got a paper Bible, underline that, because you've done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offering as the stars of heaven and as the sand that's on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gates of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Abraham was blessed because he didn't withhold anything from God. Every single one of us we have an Isaac. All of us. The question is whether or not we're willing to trust God with our Isaac. Are we willing to lay it on an altar and say, you can have it? I think it's safe to say the greatest competitor to worship, it's not rebellion. Like, no, I'm gonna shake my fist at you. The greatest competitor to to worship is reservation. Just keeping it back. I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready to give you all that. Romans 12, 1 says, again, therefore I urge you, just read this again. 4,000 years later, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living, he doesn't want dead, charred bones, a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. I think it's important. Abraham bound Isaac. I wonder, I wonder if some of us today have said, like, yeah, man, I I love Jesus, and he's asked me to give these things up. He's asked me to give him my whole life. And so I'm like, yes. And you put it on the altar, and then you kind of walk away from it, but you never bound it. Because you kind of want it to get back up. You you enjoy that part of your life. I think I think that's a struggle. Like some of you here, you've never given Jesus your whole life, you've never really surrendered to him. I think there's a lot of us that are in that spot. And and today, before we get into this series, like deep into what expression looks like, I think we need to make sure that we've put on the altar anything that would compete with him. But don't just put it there. Some of us, man, we've been believers for years. And you put something on the altar, but you didn't bind it. And so it's getting back up, it's walking, it's following you around. You're like, oh, I remember when I gave that to God. But it's there with you. It's an addiction, it's a sin, it's unforgiveness. Like, I'm gonna release that person. They don't owe me anything. God, I worship you. A dream and ambition you have, I give it to you, but it's still tracking along behind you. You didn't tie it down. Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it's literally the foundational act of worship that sets the course for your entire life. And this moment of worship for Abraham, it changed the course of history. When he laid his son Isaac on the altar, it dramatically changed everything. Through him, the entire earth was blessed. Not just through Jesus, like before him, with tons of generations, nations came out of Abraham because of his obedience to submit and yield to God. And your blessing is on the other side of laying that down and truly worshiping him. You know, Isaac, you can't have babies if there's not a guy and a girl. I don't want to get into the whole birds and bees discussion. That's the thing that's got to happen, right? Abraham never gets to be a grandpa unless Isaac has a bride. The very next verse in this whole section is, and Abraham heard that Nahor's wife had bear had borne her sons and daughters. He's like, Oh my goodness, now there's a potential bride for my son. Right on the other side of laying him down on the altar, there's an opportunity for the rest of the world for Abram to be blessed and receive his inheritance. Luke 14, 33, this is Jesus talking. He says, Therefore, any of you who doesn't renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Can't live in two worlds. The problem is not that God doesn't have enough of us. It's that he doesn't have all of us. It's not, well, I'll just give him a little bit more. No, it's I'm gonna give him everything. Everything. People get this mixed up when it comes to money all the time. They're like, oh, in the New Testament, we don't have to tithe anymore. I would I would agree to some degree with the sentiment they're saying, like the law. That's because 100% of your money belongs to God. But not just 10%. That's just a that's just a foundation. That's a baseline. Oh, you think, well, I I worship God once a week. I come in on Sundays. No, you don't. He gets every day, every moment, every thought, every passion, it's all his. It's an all-or-nothing thing. That's where worship starts. My my kids, my nine and eleven-year-old, were over this week, and they shared a story with me that was so relevant. It was so good. They were both trying to kind of explain it. And um, Ezekiel, my nine-year-old, started it off, and he's like, Dad, I heard a story about a guy. And he said, he said, this guy was was getting convinced to join God's team, and God's like had this big field and this big castle, and then the devil had this other field and this other castle. And and so the God and the devil were both trying to convince him to go to their side. And so the guy was like, Oh, that looks really good. And then he goes, but this looks really good too. And then Uriah jumps in, and Uriah kind of finishes the story. And the guy decides, like, look, I'm I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make a choice. And there's a fence in the middle, and he just kind of sits there. And he looks at God, and God's like, come. And he looks at the devil, and the devil's smiling. And he said, Why are why are you smiling? And the devil said, Because the fence belongs to me. Are there places where you're still on the fence? You haven't really yielded completely to worship for God. If God put his finger on an area of your life today and said, I want that too, what is it that he could say that would make you super uncomfortable? What is it he could say that would make you start negotiating with him right now? Like, ooh, but not that, God. No, no, no, no, no, don't take that. Maybe you're planning to obey him, but you're just delaying it. As my wife tells my kids, slow obedience is no obedience. Abraham, he walks up a mountain with wood on his back, a son beside him. He believed God was worthy of everything. And Romans tells us we don't put our sons on the altars anymore. We put ourselves on the altar. And God demonstrated his love for us in this, that he put himself on the altar for us to show us what it looks like.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast. If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast. We would also love to meet you in person. If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m. We pray you have an amazing week and we'll see you next time.