True worship

Q: What does the Bible say about true worship?

The Bible emphasizes that true worship involves bowing down and kneeling before the Lord, acknowledging His greatness and sovereignty. According to Psalm 95:6, true worship is about humbling ourselves before our Maker. It is not merely about the external elements of praise and worship, like music and performance, but rather about recognizing God as the ultimate object of our worship. True worship flows from a heart that is broken and repentant, focusing on who God is—His majesty, holiness, and love—rather than on self. Thus, the essence of worship is a sincere acknowledgment of God's sovereignty, leading believers to bow down in reverence and humility before Him.

Q: Why is worship important for Christians?

Worship is crucial for Christians as it fulfills our duty to glorify God and reflects our relationship with Him. Worship is the primary means through which Christians express their reverence and gratitude to God. Psalm 95 illustrates that we are created to show forth God's praise, emphasizing that worship is our duty to acknowledge and glorify our Creator. When we come before Him in worship, we are not seeking personal gain but rather fulfilling our purpose as His creation. Worship fosters an understanding of God's greatness and our own insignificance, leading us into deeper humility and a more profound relationship with Him. As we worship in spirit and truth, we also cultivate a community that reflects God's love and grace.

Q: How do we know God-centered worship is true?

True worship is characterized by a focus on God and must flow from a transformed heart that aligns with scriptural truths. True worship is discerned by its focus on God rather than self. It involves recognizing the majesty and holiness of God, as reflected in Psalm 95. When worship is rooted in the understanding of who God is and comes from a purified heart, it aligns with the importance of worshiping in spirit and truth, as stated in John 4:24. This means that while freedom in worship exists, it must always be guided by scriptural truths and genuine reverence for God. When worshipers genuinely engage with their Redeemer, experiencing His greatness, this transforms the outward expression, resulting in worship that is both heartfelt and God-honoring.

Q: Why do we kneel in worship?

Kneeling in worship symbolizes our humility and submission before God, recognizing His greatness. Kneeling in worship serves as an outward expression of our inner state when approaching God. It signifies reverence and submission to His authority, which is encouraged in Psalm 95:6. Throughout scripture, kneeling has been a posture of humility before God, demonstrating recognition of His sovereignty and majesty. While there are various ways to worship, the act of kneeling points to our understanding of who God is and our position as His creation. It reminds worshipers of the necessity of coming before God with a contrite spirit and a humble heart, aligning our physical posture with our spiritual state.

and may we help to consider this evening verse six from Psalm 95. Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. We hear a lot today in the church of praise and worship and it seems to be the main theme of the Christian faith. It is seen to be those who praise and worship God. A lot of emphasis is placed upon music and praising God and worshiping God. And lots of the structure of the modern church is built around this, what is termed as praise and worship. A lot of resources are ploughed into the entertainment, the musicians, the music, the instruments, the lights, and the stage by which all of this takes place on. And a lot of focus then is placed upon people, upon things, and a lot of resources are ploughed into keeping all of these things going. with the true worship of God, with true worship.

What actually is it? When people say, you know, we are praising and we are worshipping God, when we boil it all down, what does the scripture tell us? What really is praise and what really is worship? Where does it stem from? What is the source of this praise and worship? True worship has an object. as a focus. True worship, the worship of God, has God as the focus, has God as the object of that worship.

Any blessing that you and I may experience that comes upon us because we have come to worship God is a mere by-product of that worship. We come to bow down and to kneel down and to humble ourself before our Maker, because that is our duty, that is what God has created us for. This people have I formed for myself that they should show forth my praise. This people have I set aside for myself that they may praise and that they may worship me, that they may have me as their object, have me as their focus, and themselves are humbled, as it were, in the dust before their Maker. And so true worship stems from a broken and a repentant heart.

It has God in his greatness, in his majesty, in his sovereignty, in his kingship, in his holiness, in his love as the forefront of the mind. And for who he is brings the worshipper down into their right place. And so as we read through this Psalm 95, he begins by singing, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord, the rock of our salvation. He goes on and he begins to be drawn into the greatness of God.

As he focuses upon his worship, he begins to be drawn into the greatness of God. for the Lord Jehovah is a great God and a great King above all the gods. If you remember the time when this is being written, round about Israel and the nations round about are filled with other gods. gods that are worshipped, gods that are trusted in, gods that are just the imagination of men's minds. In Psalm 96, it says that these gods, they are nothing, but the Lord made the heavens. For the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. And so as he is beginning to focus upon the greatness of God. He sees God as a God who is far above all of the other gods of this earth. He's the king of kings.

His hands are in the deep places. Remember David said, where can I go from my presence? His hands are there in the deep places of the earth. His strength, the strength of the hills are his also. mighty mountains, immovable objects are in his hands, under his control. They are moved at his bidding, and the hills also. The sea is his, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land. And as the psalmist as the apostle says in the book of Hebrews that he believes that this is David who wrote this, as David is focusing upon the greatness of God and how vast he is and how full of strength he is and his creative power He then is brought into a state of worship. He is ushered into a state of worship. He cries out, I'll come.

Let us worship and let us bow down. He doesn't say, come and get the amplifier, come and get the lights, get the smoke machine, get the guitar, the drum kit, the keyboard, and all of these things. Set out the stage and let us worship our God. No, he says, come, let us fall down.

Let us humble ourselves before this great, holy, holy, holy God. Let us bow down before Him. Let us realise who we are, who we are before Him. We are the lesser and He is the greater. He is the object of our worship and not we ourselves. Let us bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord. O come, let us worship our Maker. And so true worship, the true worship of God does not have self in view.

Self is place to the side. It's not about how I feel. It's not about how or what I want to do. It is not about the experience that I want to create or even what I want to receive. It is all about God. It is outward looking. There is a tendency, isn't there, in our circles of churches to come to worship, to what I can get. You know, did you get a word? Did you, how did you get on? Did you receive anything? We don't find that here with David. We find it fall down, worship God and if you receive anything, then it's a, that is of his grace, of his mercy. We do not come to worship God to receive anything. come because it is our duty.

He has created us for his worship and we would come with that right attitude, a right attitude, a broken and a contrite spirit, a humble heart, a reverent respect for who it is that we are coming to worship. Let us bow down, let us kneel before our maker. We look in the Old Testament how much detail God wrote down or required to be done for his worship. Right down to the high priest's garments and the bells and the colours the gold and the ornaments, the ceremonies, the sacrifices, the temple, all of these things that God specifically designed in uttermost detail. And so God takes his worship of great importance. It is of great importance to God as to how his people worship him. Thankfully, as I've said many times before, here in the New Testament we are given vast freedom. It's not outward form but a broken and a repentant spirit.

But the psalmist, as he meditated upon God, he's then moved to worship. If you remember the If you remember the eunuch that we looked at the other day, he had been to Jerusalem for to worship. God had specifically designated that that city was the place by which the temple was and the place by which the people would go to worship. And so this eunuch traveled all of this way from Ethiopia to go to Jerusalem for to worship. That's what God had said to the Jews and how he had structured his worship.

And that was what was required. If you think of the other religions of the world, you think of the Muslims and all that they have to go through to worship their God. How many times a day they have to cease their work and to go and pray, facing in a specific way to their God. taking pilgrimages to Mecca and certain things that they must do and the Hindus and their rituals that they have to undergo to enable them to please their God and to worship their God.

An outward form that he says here, look at the majesty of God. It is He who has made us, the Lord our maker. Let us kneel down before Him. Let us bow down before Him. And so this psalm is not just a mere form. As the Ethiopian went all the way to Jerusalem to conduct what he had to do, as the Jews had to go to Jerusalem and to conduct the sacrifices and their worship there, it could all become just an outward form, an outward show of religion.

A box ticked. Yes, I've done that today. Yeah, I've done that today. I'm doing okay. God's going to be pleased with me because I've fulfilled the outward law, the ceremony. But David had something more than just outward form. David was not just about ticking boxes. He understood who God was, the greatness of God. And he understood who he was.

And so he encourages us to fall down before our maker, but not only to fall down before our maker in fear, but in love. Our God, yes, he is a fearful God for he is holy. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. Our God is a consuming fire. He is angry with the wicked every single day. He is a just God. But through Christ Jesus, he is a loving heavenly father. David knew him as his shepherd. David knew him as his father, his God.

And so not only does he say, let us fall down with reverence and godly fear, let us kneel before our maker, but he says, come, come, let us sing. Let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord. This singing was not any how. It was focused. It was purposeful. It was singing to the rock of our salvation. He understood that God is our rock, that Christ is the rock of our salvation. He is the foundation stone. He is the cornerstone. He is the shelter of a rock in a weary land. And so his song was God-centred, it was Christ-centred. And he sang of salvation.

How often have you been, as it were, meditating like David? meditating on the goodness of God and your salvation, and what response does it have? Sometimes it does break you and bring you to your knees, and you have to come weeping before the Lord in humility, but sometimes it brings you into singing. You begin to sing of the goodness of God. You begin to sing the hymns that you love and those Christ-centered hymns. You begin to sing of salvation. You begin to sing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was speaking to Margaret earlier today and that hymn that says, Oh, for a closer walk with God. We have these times when we see ourselves as so weak and so insignificant and we fall so far short, but that brings us also into worship. We acknowledge the greatness of God and we desire to walk closer with him. And so does David, he says, come, let us sing.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Often, I think when we're singing, you know, we have a problem with the chapel roof. It absorbs all of the sound, but the Lord knows. When we sing, we make a joyful noise to the Lord. We sing from our hearts. We sing with understanding. We truly believe what we are singing. We truly know what we are singing. We know Christ in the words. We've experienced his salvation. We have a love to God. It's not just a form of religion that we are going through. something known and something felt. We sing to God from the heart.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. When we gather together, we are coming into the presence of God. There is nowhere that we can go from his presence, even when we are alone. What a privilege we have as individual believers that we can come aside and be alone with the Lord Jesus Christ. We can sing when we're alone to the Lord Jesus Christ and we can come before him with thanksgiving.

We are thankful for all that he has done. We are thankful for his wonderful gift of salvation. We are thankful for his daily providences. There is so much that we have received at the hand of the Lord. Our strength sufficient for each day. We wake up in the morning and the Lord has given us life. He hasn't taken us. We're able to live another day for his glory and we are thankful. We're thankful for the food that has been provided as we sit down to eat and we give thanks. We ask the Lord to bless the food and we give thanks. But thanks, having a truly thankful heart does not bring misery.

There are many Christians, well not many, there are some Christians who believe that we should walk around miserable. Christians should be miserable people. But we don't get that tone when we look at the Psalms. We don't get that tone when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, there are times when we are miserable. Yes, there are times when we are overwhelmed with sin. Yes, there are times when things are difficult. The Bible says when we fast that we're to go into our closets and we're to deal with God in secret, not to make people aware of all that we are passing through. You see, when we come with thanksgiving, having a truly thankful heart, it gives us a joy.

We're able to sing, with a joyful noise unto him with psalms. You think of Paul and Silas when they were in the prison. Their outward situation was grim, was difficult, yet they were there and they were able to sing. In their suffering, they were able to sing, sing praises unto God. when we were in Kenya, there were times when it was very difficult, but we had great times of singing. There are hymns that we remember now that will be ingrained in our spirits forever. And they were associated with difficult times, but the blessings were there, drew us to God.

We're able to sing in our suffering to the Lord with a joyful heart. Why? Because God is great. A great king above all the other gods. So there is singing, our worship by singing, making a joyful noise unto the Lord. there's thanksgiving but also then there is that posture, the posture of worship.

Let us kneel down before the Lord, let us bow down. Obviously there are times when There is no, would not be practical for us to kneel down physically, collectively together every Lord's Day to worship. But throughout the scriptures, the Bible gives us different ways by which people pray and different ways by which people worship God.

Some of the Lord's people have fallen flat on their face, have laid prostrate on the floor and pleaded with the Lord. With Solomon, when he built the temple, the king kneeled down with his arms outstretched, pleading with the Lord in prayer. The prophets, one of them, Elijah, I believe, puts his head between his knees. As he kneels down, he curls himself right up into a little ball to plead with the Lord.

There are those who pray to God standing up, to worship God standing up. The Bible tells us that the trees of the field, they clap their hands. They shout for joy and make a joyful noise unto the Lord. And so we're not given the specific way by which we must worship God. We have our freedom.

There are times when all you want to do is to kneel down and pray. There are times when that's not practical. You can sit in your car and drive along and pray and sing and worship God. There are times when you're on your sick bed and there's nothing you can do but to lay there.

But you can pray and you can worship God. But it speaks to us also of of the inner state of the worshipper. You see, this is what is more important to God rather than the external form of the worship. What is more important to God is the inner state.

You see, some may come to the services and they may look exactly correct as you would think that a Christian should look. They may come in their nice suit, and they may look like this person. They know who God is. They have come so reverently into the service. They may look the part. They may tickle the outward forms of religion.

Yet when God looks at their hearts, He sees that they are unconverted, they are hard-hearted, they are satisfied only with the form, they are hearers of the word only. That shouldn't make it an excuse. As some like to quote, God looks at the heart, but man looks at the outward appearance. What we know is that when the heart is transformed, that person has a right understanding of who God is. And that right understanding of who God is will change the outward appearance. and will bring that person to have a humble attitude and a right understanding of who God is and how to worship him. And so God is concerned with the inner being.

As we look at God in the Old Testament and we see how detailed he designed his worship, Has he changed? Has God changed as we transfer over into the New Testament? Has man suddenly become able to take a higher place? Has man suddenly been able to go from this bended knee, this bowed down position, this humble worship of God, to a proud, arrogant, self-sufficient style of worship? Has God changed?

The answer is no. God is the same. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. God hasn't changed and nor has the sinful position or condition of man. What has changed is the fear of saying no, the fear of saying that's not right, People say we've got freedom. We've got freedom to worship God how we like. And in a sense, yes, we do have a freedom to worship God how we like, but that freedom that we have must be drawn from what we know about God and what we understand about ourselves.

If you remember when Jesus met with the lady at the well, Jesus says to her in John chapter 4 from verse 20, she says, Our fathers worshipped God in this mountain, but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. You see, that's what she understood. Jerusalem was the place. That's where you had to go to worship God. But Jesus says to her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the father. The temple was going to be destroyed. The ceremonial system overthrown, done away with in Christ Jesus. Nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the father.

Ye worship, ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It must be more than an outward form of worship. must be from the inner man, the spirit having been made alive.

It must come from a true understanding of who God is, as David here in the psalm, as he has a true understanding of who God is. He knows him. He's in a relationship with him. He loves him. And as he meditates upon the greatness of God and his own insignificance as a mere creature, He then calls or invites those who are reading to come and to worship this great God. Not out of a form, but out of love. Out of this broken and a contrite heart, this spirit that has been made alive. The inner person having been born again, having a true love to God and a true reverence for him. and true humility.

But do you know true spiritual worship without the railroad of the scriptures has no boundaries. If you remember that I've witnessed many times in Kenya, people who believe that they are worshipping God, they don't have the railroad of scripture. There's no boundaries. They're saying we're led by the Spirit. They do all manner of evil things. They're believing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God. but it's just an external form of excitement that is inflamed by others round about them. It's not true worship. It may look good. It may look exciting. It may be pleasing to the flesh, but the Lord is not there. The spirit is not there.

It's not channeled by scripture. They do not know anything of the greatness of God, the holiness of God. There's no let us kneel down, let us bow down. It's not grounded in the word of God. It's not grounded in God's revealed truth, what God has revealed to us about himself as he has not changed.

And therefore he still demands that reverence when we come before him. It's not old-fashioned. We live in a day where everyone is mates with everybody else. The children call their fathers by their names, their mothers by their names. Children and adults go to nightclubs and things together. Teachers are not respected. Police are not respected. Nobody likes a higher authority. Nobody likes to humble themselves before anybody because I, I is number one. And that has been right from the beginning of the fall of man.

It's about me. It's about self. And it creeps into, it creeps into the church and it creeps into the worship style. It's not about God. It is about me. how I feel, what emotions are being stimulated by the worship, the praise and worship that is taking place. It's not governed by the word of God. It's not grounded in the truth of the word. It is self-centered rather than God-centered.

Come, let us worship. Come, let us sing and let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation. Our delight, our delight should be to come and to worship God. Should we receive anything at the hand of the Lord, then it is of a great mercy. We do not deserve anything to come from the hand of God, yet. because he is a kind and a merciful God. He blesses us when we come to worship him.

He meets with his people where two or three are gathered in his name. There he is there in the midst of them. That's a great blessing for the Lord's people to come together and to be in the presence of almighty God. But it's not limited to this gathering.

You and I are able to worship God as we drive our cars, as we meet together with our families and conduct a family worship, as we walk along the streets, we can sing his praises, we can speak to him from our hearts, in our minds. And let us never forget who he is. and who we are. Let us never forget that it must be more than an outward form of worship, that it must come from a transformed heart, a true worship. God is seeking such who will worship him in spirit, yet channeled and governed by the truth of his word, who he is, and who we are. Oh come, let us worship, let us and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the day of provocation and in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

May the Lord add his blessing to these thoughts. Amen. Our next hymn is again from Hymns for Worship, number 21. Here from the world we turn, Jesus to seek. Here may his loving voice tenderly speak. Jesus, our dearest friend, while at thy feet we bend, O let thy smile descend, tis thee we seek. Hymn 21.

♪ The world we tell ♪ ♪ Jesus did say ♪ ♪ Him in his loving voice ♪ ♪ Tenderly sweet ♪ ♪ Jesus our dearest friend ♪ ♪ O let thy smile descend ♪ ♪ Till earth may reach thee ♪ ♪ O holy dawn of dawn ♪ ♪ Let us adore thee ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ In joy divine ♪ ♪ Today do thy work revive ♪ ♪ To our heaven's king ♪ ♪ Make earth thy king ♪ ♪ Come to our hearts tonight ♪ ♪ Make every heart and mind ♪ ♪ Share Thou our waiting sight with all the world. ♪

True worship

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true worship?

Why is worship important for Christians?

How do we know God-centered worship is true?

Why do we kneel in worship?

Sermon Transcript

About James Gudgeon

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True worship

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true worship?

Why is worship important for Christians?

How do we know God-centered worship is true?

Why do we kneel in worship?

Sermon Transcript

About James Gudgeon

Comments

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