So often many people perceive worship to be primarily the singing and dancing on a sunday morning, but there so much more than that. Everything we do in our day-to-day lives, such as speaking in tongues, thanking God in the supermarket queue, singing at the top of your voice in your car listening to a worship CD, tithing, helping the poor, serving the brokenhearted, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked are all forms of worship because we glorifying Gods name, not just by what we say and sing but what we put into action.

It is so easy for us to go into the presence of God on a sunday morning carrying alot of baggage from the week. Anxiety, fear, stress, ill-health and many more things can become baggage that stops us from worshipping God. The Lord is calling us as a church to lay everything at his feet and worship him for who he is, because worship has the power to heal, to transform, to set free and to tear down anything that may be hindering your walk with God. Remember… when we speak to God we’re not leaving a message on the heavenly answer machine and waiting for a call back. In actual fact, God is always there listening to our hearts cry and he always responds. So I encourage you: if you have any fear, anxiety, stress, ill-health or anything like that, place it all at Jesus’ feet and worship him for who he is and he will answer your cry.

“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.“- 1 Samuel 16:7
You may not be the greatest singer in the world, but that should never stop you from singing praises up to God, because He is not looking for ability or to see how musically gifted you are. Nor is He looking for how much equipment your church has. He’s looking at your heart… and if your heart is set on worshipping God that is what pleases Him.
God gave me a vision of a man who was very poor, but with the very little he had he bought a guitar. Equipped only with only his little shed and this very aged out of tune guitar, he began to worship God, giving him everything he had to offer. Then God said to me ‘This man has nothing but a shed and an out of tune guitar, yet his heart was in the right place.’
God isn’t interested in how musically talented you are, how much money you have or how much equipment and facilities you have. He’s after your heart.

…to be continued

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Notice the last sentence of that passage:

“…God is spirit, and his worshippers must must worship in spirit and in truth.”

God is calling us as a people to worship him with everything we’ve got, which includes living our lives the way He wants us to live them, so that our worship can really mean something. True worship is not just lip service. Our worship should reflect the way in which we live our lives, so that it can truly bring glory to God’s name.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will take a look at a few pointers that will encourage us to be the generation of true worshippers God is looking for:

1. Worship comes through revelation

How can we sing of things we have not seen? A line from Matt Redmans Song is ‘Worship starts with seeing you’ – how true it is that statement! Our worship always starts from a place of revelation of who God is and what’s he done. If you’re at a point where your unsure of this, pray that God will reveal more of himself to you and I believe that God will answer your prayer. See Leviticus 9:24 when fire blazes forth from the presence of God the people there found themselves facedown on the ground in worship. In essence… when we gaze upon the glory of our God our hearts response is only to worship.

2. Our worship is a sacrifice

Therefore lets offer that sacrifice with a joyful heart and thanksgiving…
When we worship it’s a sacrifice to God, therefore we should be offering that sacrifice up to God not with a grumbling heart, but with a heart that is full of joy and thanksgiving. God loves a joyful giver, so let us give to God what he deserves and let us do that with a heart attitude that isn’t grumbling or moaning, but that is open, excited and full of gladness, because God loves it when we offer up a sacrifice of worship with a heart that is joyful.

3. Our worship should be God centred and Holy Spirit led

When we worship its important that we give our all to God, and let him be the centre. When we focus on other things during worship such as the chicken in the oven at home (or what time the football kicks off!) we are robbing God of our worship, and we should be giving God the glory no matter what and concentrating completely on Him and nothing else. God spoke to me during an early sunday morning prayer meeting, this is what he said:‘Close your eyes and imagine you’re in my throne room, its just me and you… how would you worship me, would you still be thinking of the football scores, would be still be thinking of how the chickens going to taste like? Whenever you worship Me you are entering into My throne room, into My presence therefore throw off anything that would distract you from worshipping me and giving me your all’

I’ll leave you with that vision and I pray that we realise that when we worship (no matter how or where) we are entering into God’s presence. Therefore we should get rid of anything that would distract us from us giving him our all.

…to be continued.

Worship is all about sacrifice. From the very first example of worship in Genesis, biblical worship has always contained an element of sacrifice. Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all offered different sacrifices to the Lord before the law was given to instruct the people of God in how to worship acceptably (it is interesting to note that none of these are recorded to have sung or made music to the Lord, potentially challenging the emphasis in our modern thinking about worship).

These acts of worship were often killing an animal and offering it to God (here we mean the act of sacrifice as an offering of worship rather than to cover sin). So before the law was given, men worshipped God by sacrificing something of their livestock to him. This is a far more involved process than merely deducting 1 from the count of the herd. Such an act would involve (often) building an altar, wearing appropriate attire, catching the animal, killing it, preparing the carcass and washing the clothes and utensils used as well as postponing any work that was to be done that day. This took on even more protocol after the law was given to Israel, with a whole section of the people devoted to this purpose. So we begin to see that this was not 45 minutes on a Sunday morning! Sacrifices would take many hours; not to mention the fact that wealth was often counted in terms of livestock at that time.

If we want to truly worship God and offer him acceptable worship, it has to cost us. If something doesn’t cost us anything to give then it is worthless. So it is with our worship. If we allow our feelings to dictate how we act towards God then something needs to change. God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and is always worthy of praise, so regardless of how we feel or what has happened in a particular day or week, it is right for us to sacrifice and worship him. It is in these sacrifices that the essence of biblical worship is restored to us; in giving something to God that costs us.

This does extend to our money. Let us not be apologetic for the fact that we offer our money to God as an act of worship. Please note that sacrifice is not necessary for us to gain God’s approval, as the ultimate sacrifice, that is, Jesus Christ, has already been offered, but that we are talking about worshipping God – a reflection of his position in our hearts. True worship is to give to God that which costs us, whether it takes the form of offering money to God, singing in tongues even though we might feel self-conscious, choosing to spend time at the throne of God rather than watch TV, dancing irrespective of what we may look like, or one of any number of other things.

Cost is relative. Something that may be easy for one person to offer may be a huge sacrifice for someone else. For a young, healthy man or woman of God, it is not so much to dance before the Lord, but for an older person with less energy, such an act is far more costly. For a wealthy person, it may not be a big deal to offer £10 to God, but for another, with less means, again, such an act is a large sacrifice, requiring much faith. Jesus taught us this when the poor widow in the temple gave two small coins: “…’I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.’” Amongst the wealthy crowd, there was one worshipper; the woman who gave all she had to the Lord.

Let us come to God with something to bring to him, something that costs us, in the knowledge that he is Lord, and that he has already given to us that which cost him most dearly; his own Son.

‘No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.’

In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 we see a vivid, beautiful picture of worship in creation, starting with the lamb on the throne (as all our worship should) then step by step revealing every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth in worship, singing their various songs of praise to Jesus, the centre and sustainer of all things. It is interesting to note that only after the Lamb has taken the scroll in 5:7 (that is, Jesus has died, risen and ascended) that the earth is included in this picture. It is only through Jesus that we can offer acceptable sacrifices of worship from a fallen world.

This brings us to the other aspect of / reason for worship. The first is that we worship God for who he is; the second is that we worship him for what he has done. That is why Psalm 100 exhorts us to “enter his gates with thanksgiving” (Psalm 100:4). In God’s work of redemption for mankind, he earned (for want of a better word) all praise for the rest of eternity. The amazing love, grace and mercy displayed in this incredible act is reason for us to offer him thanks. Thanking God is a huge part of praise and comes from our realising what he has done for us.

As worship starts with Christ, it is also sustained by him, as he sustains all things (Colossians 1:17). The Holy Spirit tells us how to worship, and in following his direction, we find ourselves working together with God and ascending higher into realms of glory and into his wonderful presence. In New Life Church, we are passionate about “Holy Spirit led” worship, and we believe that this kind of worship will have an effect on the city around us.

Worship and praise are fundamental in both the life of the individual Christian and in the life of the Church, and that worship and praise are means by which we enter God’s presence. In worshipping God, we put him in his rightful place, and we find ourselves in our rightful place, seated in heavenly realms with Christ! (Ephesians 2:6)

“For by [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth… …and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross”(Colossians 1:16-20)

I remember when I visited the House of Lords. It was a great and vast room full of old seats and musty furniture. At the end of the room I saw a throne. It stood out from everything else in the room. The design, decoration and size were magnificent. I was disappointed, though, when I was told we were not aloud to go near it, touch or even sit on it!!

I thank God that where there once was no way, a way has been made for us to enter into Gods presence and come to His throne. Praise God that we do not have to rely on a high priest to go into the throne room for us, or have to book an appointment to meet the King, or stand at the entrance from afar and simply gaze from a distance.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4v16

When John in Revelation 4 is taken into the Spirit and walks through the door standing open he enters the throne room of God. In this room He sees;

· a great sea of glass before the throne,

· seven burning lamps around the throne,

· peels of thunder and flashes of lightening from the throne,

· twenty four thrones all with elders, dressed in white and wearing crowns around the throne

· a huge rainbow encircling the throne.

Imagine being John, taking that step of faith, entering the throne room in the Spirit seeing all these things around the throne. Imagine seeing the rainbow, the angels doing God’s bidding, the noise of the thunder, the elders sat on their thrones.

The great thing here however, is that all these things that John sees are secondary to seeing the throne. In amongst all this the very first thing he sees is the throne of God and One sitting on it.

“After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven….. At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.” Revelation 4v1,2

You have right standing with God almighty who sits on the throne of the whole universe. The door is open for you to enter and experience the awesome presence of God!

I encourage you, when you are worshiping God in your own time, open homes and on Sunday mornings take a step of faith, allow yourself to be in ‘the Spirit’, see Him on the throne, touch Him, talk to Him, worship and adore Him.

Let us not take for granted the simple truth that through salvation, we have been given a pass to enter God’s presence. Through grace and mercy see the throne of authority where one day every knee will bow, see the throne of power from where God said the word and the world came into existence, see the throne from where God sits and rules over his Kingdom, healing the sick, setting people free, pouring out His Spirit.

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom.” Psalm 45v6