Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God has highly exalted him [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 13:15   Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that confess His name.

Worship is crucial and necessary to the heart of a believer.  Is worship the brief time you sing during a church service?  Yes, and so much more.   To worship God is to put HIm first in your life, to surrender what you want to what He wants, to own no rights to what you do, what you have, where you go, or how you live.   To worship God is to surrender your rights and to become His servant, totally and completely owned by Him.   What in the world does that look like?   Is God the guy that comes along with us on our journey, that we hope clears the path as we continue to walk down the road we have chosen?  Is He the guy we blame when things don’t go according to our plan?   

Or is God our Master?  Does He own the rights to what we do, what we buy, where we go, and how we live?  Think about it.  A slave belongs to a master.   A slave doesn’t go to the master and say-  listen, you need to do this for me today.   No, a slave goes to the master and says, what would you like for me to do for you?  A slave has no right to his own life or his own condition. He can ask for things and then he leaves it to the Master’s decision and accepts it.  

Surrendering our lives to God as our Master is in and of itself an act of worship.  Worshipping God means that we exalt Him above ourselves and praise Him with everything in us.  It is about humility and being willing to do whatever we can to humble ourselves, honor Him and obey Him as He instructs.  We surrender the rights to our lives so that He may do with us whatever He so chooses.   

If God were truly our Master, we would look different.

So how do we look?   Well, let’s take a quick glimpse at the picture of the classically understood worship time.  We go to church and most services start with worship music.   Worship music is for the purpose of praising our Master. He says that He inhabits our praises so it is for the purpose of ushering in the Holy Spirit to come upon the house of worship and be among us.  It is not for the purpose of just singing a few sweet songs before the pastor dude gets up to talk.   It is the most intimate time of the service because it’s where we humble ourselves in His presence, to learn more about HIm.   So have we ever refused to humble ourselves and offer a sacrifice of praise in worship time at church?  Have we stood there with our mouths closed and refused to even speak the words?  Have we routinely come in late because that part of the service really doesn’t matter?  Have we been preoccupied and not spoken or sung the words as though we are hearing them and meaning them?   God help us in our arrogance, our unwillingness to sacrifice even this much- to praise You, to worship You.   God forgive us.  We just don’t understand sometimes.

To sacrifice in worship means that, even if we don’t like our singing voice, we stand and speak the words, hear them and surrender our hearts.   We own the words as we sing/speak them, offering them directly to the Father- just between God and us personally, in a corporate setting.  It’s an intimate time.  It’s a sacrifice.   This is a sacred moment. And once we begin to take the words to heart, we are changed.  Please let us  honor this time of worship.  And sing- or speak- but connect with our Master and mean what we say.  Let us put all random thoughts aside and speak the prayer that is in the song.  

Takeaway:     Worship at the beginning of the service is there to bring us into intimacy with the Lord, both individually and as a group.   It’s a time of humbling ourselves and offering to Him a “sacrifice” of praise.  And worship can start there but it goes way beyond music.  Worship is a condition and position of the heart.   Please read the words below as you listen to the song.  Really hear the words. Offer them to Him.

Prayer:   Dear Lord, please help me to prepare my heart before entering into a corporate time of worship with other believers.  Draw me into Your presence as I humble myself and speak or sing the words of the songs chosen.   Drive deep within me the purpose of  worship and cause me to crave those moments as one would crave a moment  shared with the one I love most.   And Lord, please let my life be an offering of worship to you.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Zp586pvZg

                                                            “The Heart Of Worship”

                                                    Matt Redman (he gets it for sure)

When the music fades

and all has slipped away

and I simply come.

Longing just to be

something that’s of worth

that will bless Your heart.

I’ll bring You more than a song,

for a song in itself

is not what You have required.

You search much deeper within,

through the way things appear,

Your looking into my heart.

I’m coming back to the heart of worship

and its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.

I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it

when its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.

King of endless worth,

no one could express

how much you deserve.

Though I’m weak and poor,

all I have is Yours,

every single breath!

I’ll bring You more than a song,

for a song in itself

is not what You have required.

You search much deeper within,

through the way things appear,

Your looking into my heart.

I’m coming back to the heart of worship

and its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.

I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it

when its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.