What is Praise and Worship?

what is P&W (shared by Jessica 5/2/2008)
1) Spirit: intimate response to God
- John 4:24 response to God who you love and know; do we experience a personal intimate relationship with God? In Psalms David desired to know God's heartbeat, he wanted to know God on an intimate level.
- relationship with God through the spirit; Man has spirit and his spirit wants to commune with God's spirit;
Passage John 4:24: ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

2) Truth: real response to God
- acknowledge the truth that we need God; We need to check ourselves, to be honest, wholly dependent on God only. We need to be who were made to be, unique in every way.

3) Thankful: thankful response to God
- 1 Peter 2:9-10 we are chosen from the darkness to be holy to God; The fact is it should be enough to bring us thankfulness and joyfulness. No matter what situation happens in our lives that may drag us down, we must remember that God is good all the time. We should be grateful for the salvation which we have.
Passage 1 Peter 2:9-10: ⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

4) Foolish response: our foolish response to God
- 2 Samuel 6:14-15 see the way David danced for God, glamorously foolish, unreserved expression of joy, shamelessly and no calculation of how I ridiculous i look etc.
- when worship God we should not care people's eyes
- feel free to worship Him even you cannot sing well or your voice is so awful or your dance no one understands
Passage 2 Samuel 6:14-15: ¹⁴ David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

5) Heard response: our heard response to God
- 2 Chron. 20:18-22, Psalm 66:8
- sing out before the enemy coz we know God will bring the victory to us
- focus on pleasing God
Passage 2 Chronicles 20:18-22:

¹⁸ Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD. ¹⁹ Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with very loud voice.

²⁰ Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful." ²¹ After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his ^[a] holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:
"Give thanks to the LORD,
for his love endures forever."

²² As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. Passage Psalm 66:8: ⁸ Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard;


6) Declaration of Gods goodness and glory:
- Psalm 108:3, 92:4-5, 105:1-2
- cooperated worship inspires people to response to God, it is evangelistic because there are two groups of people, the worshipers (believers) and the observers (un-churched) whom are looking for something different. We dont need to follow the contemporary modern music because the observers are looking for something different e.g. techno beats in church same as in disco which they are escaping. It must be different as it is corporate worship compared to just band playing, watch movies, ballets etc. It should inspire people to respond to God, should suggest how great God is and declare his glory to the nation
- cooperated worship is more than (beyond) a good performance
Passage Psalm 108:3: ³ I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. Passage Psalm 92:4-5:

⁴ For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.

⁵ How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! Passage Psalm 105:1-2:

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.

² Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.

None Christian who come together they should be able to come away with:
- Why is God so great?
-Why are people so passionate about God?

simple preparation
1) holy life
- 2 chron. 5:12; 2 chron. 29:15 holiness, righteousness
- our hearts have to be right to God; white symbolizes holiness and people can see the righteousness we have in God; We need to consecrate, purify and sanctify because we need to be ministers of God to the people. We need to be right and not sinful because we will be ministering the wrong spirit. We can't get ourselves right, only God can, hence we need to come to Jesus. It is also a privilege and righteous position to have. We need repented heart and lay it before God at his feet. We need to factor in time with God to see if our heart is right. Because people can see God in us.
- on stage we focus on our ministry rather than how beautiful we are
Passage 2 Chronicles 5:12: ¹² All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. Passage 2 Chronicles 29:15: ¹⁵ When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the LORD, as the king had ordered, following the word of the LORD.

2) knowing God personally
- open your ears hear God's voice John 10:3-5
- develop your relationship with God consistency, and knowing God personally in order to hear from him. As leaders we need to be able to hear the chief shepherds voice, to received and guided ourselves by him.
- should not take it seriously just only the week when your on duty but should be ready in and our of season.
- Hebrew 5:11-13
Passage John 10:3-5 ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."
Passage Hebrews 5:11-15: ¹¹We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. ¹²In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

3) life style
- teachable spirit (1 chron.9:33)
- be ready to worship God all the time
- 1 chron. 25:6-8 ability (invest time for develop skills & training)
Passage 1 Chronicles 9:33: ³³ Those who were musicians, heads of Levite families, stayed in the rooms of the temple and were exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the work day and night.
Passage 1 Chronicles 25:6-8: ⁶ All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the LORD, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the supervision of the king. ⁷ Along with their relatives—all of them trained and skilled in music for the LORD -they numbered 288. ⁸ Young and old alike, teacher as well as student, cast lots for their duties.

heart burden
- for non believers worship should show
a) why God is so great? and
b) why people passionate about Him?
- how to choose the song
the song you want to sing or the song God guide you
- culture and style
different church different culture or style
should not allow anything stop you worship God
maturity "grow in Christ"

check their attitude & hearts
note that God need obedience rather than sacrifice

Action and Result

Passage 2 Chronicles 7:14:
¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Passage Psalm 27:4-8:

⁴ One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

⁵ For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

⁷ Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸ My heart says of you, "Seek his ^[a] face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

Psalm 95

¹ Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

³ For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.

⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.

⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

Passage Isaiah 6:3:

³ And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

Full Worship with our Body

Have you ever gone to service feeling that you didn't get something out of it?

You probably have missed the point of true worship if you have thought this way. When we come to a place of worship and leave with the feeling that we did not get anything from the praise and worship, we should reconsider the meaning of praise and worship.

Worship is not for the purpose of obtaining anything from God, but giving to God. True worship is a life of respect and adoration for God because of who he is. In revelation 5 aspect of worship: “adoration of Gods being, declaration of Lambs worthiness, a celebration of Gods presence, submission to his authority and fearing and serving him”. The right attitude begins with recognizing God as the sole object of worship.

When we begin to understand this, we will automatically feel the need to express our gratitude, our thanks, our adoration, our praises to him with all our heart. This is not for our benefit, or for the onlookers but it is the expression of our heart towards God, and God is pleased with this! We should worship him without being conscious of what others are doing, we should look up when we worship him, we should lift our hands, dance, kneel, bow, as what the bible teaches.

Worship involves the complete self, our body, mind and soul. A example of free worship is given below, for motor heads, I think you will like this example :)

"I thought about the above phrase and used a car to illustrate worship. The Spirit in like the petrol in a car. Without the petrol, you cannot start the car. After starting the car, you need to engage the gears. This is like engaging our soul, which consists of our mind, will and emotions to worship God. You need to worship God with your soul. Never park your brains outside when you worship God. Finally, worship is always expressed in our body, whether in a dance , song, laughter, lifting of hands, bowing down etc. Our body moves. This is likened to the wheels of a car. If a car does not have wheels, it cannot move. Some of our worship are like cars without wheels. We are totally frozen instead of being God’s chosen.

All worship must begin in our spirit. Our hearts must long for God. Our soul which is made up of the mind , will and emotions should then be engaged. Finally, worship should be expressed in some form of physical movement or vocal sounds."

-Ng Wah Lok

Worshipping God

Words of Worship
"Shachah" - Hebrew for depress, bow, crouch, fall down, humbly beseech
"Proskuneo" - Greek for falling down to kiss the ground before kings feet, paying homage
"Sebonai" - Greek for reverence hold in awe
"Latreuo" - render religious service homage

These are a few words translated from Greek and Hebrew to define worship. Worship in the old English language means "worth-ship" meaning to acknowledge the worth of someone. For Christians it means to acknowledge the worth of God.

Old Testament
In OT, the Israelites worshiped the Lord by paying homage and devotion whereby it takes place at certain time and place. Performing rituals and sacrifice for repentance and seeking God through the ark. Below are some examples.

John 4:20 - All went to Jerusalem to pray ; Daniel 6:10 - Direction of place
Psalm 138:2 - In temple ; 2 King 18:22, Isaiah 36:7 - Acts of worship at altar
Jeremiah - At the gate
Leviticus 1, 16:20, - Burnt offerings, scapegoat,, unblemish lambs etc

These type of worship tended to lead to legalism where people tend to be sidetracked by rituals of worship and miss the true essence of humility before God, most evident with Pharisee and Sadducees in OT/NT. It was a matter of lip service (Matthew 15:8, 9; Isaiah 29:13), they had exchange truth for tradition, it could be said they worship the worship more than God.

The type of worship God really wanted was a broken and contrite heart as David writes in Psalm 51:7 whereby Worshiping in practice is a lifestyle of brokenness before God. We present ourselves as living sacrifice (Roman 12:1,2). It's not to say, worship should not be separated from service as everything we do should be for Gods glory (Phil 4:18) and in our everyday life (Roman 14:8).

New Testament
Worship in NT (John 4:7-26) is to worship in the right attitude but there is more to it, there is no longer special place or time to worship God as God is spirit and is omnipresent. It no longer is outward worship but a spirit-to-spirit devotion to God. Hence speaking in tongues (Holy Spirits language), where our spirits pray while our mouth speak. We worship God from our spirits but there is always outward response. Worship in truth is sincerity and doctrinal truth. We speak truth and live by the Spirit of God in our daily lives, through doing mundane things to making important decision. We ask God for guidance, counsel and help through his word and prayer. Making God the center of our life.

John 4:23-24 "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."

This is the highest form of worship that God intended and purposes made us to be.