06.20.11 - What is worship?

Really, what does this word even mean? And how did it become a part of the Sunday service at churches?

dictionary.com reads:

worship
1. reverent honor and homage paid to god or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.

So according to the dictionary, it is reverent honor. Well, go ahead and ask your next question, "What is reverent honor actually mean?"

And from the same source:

reverent
1. feeling, exhibiting, deeply respectful

honor
1. source of credit, high respect, high public esteem, special rank

So in essence, is it fair to say that we can sum up the meaning of worship to say:
~Exhibiting respect to the source of credit of the creation of the universe and all that is in it, God.

OK, I like that.

Now, where does that fit in today's church service?

We (the church) create "worship experiences" each Sunday for a congregation of believers (and some non-believers).....meaning we organize and plan out a service in such a way that will hopefully allow others who attend to feel the freedom to "worship" God. And at the end of the day, we "pray" that what we did/said/sang/danced/read was pleasing to God. This is no doubt a very common trend in the church.

Not implying that any of this is wrong or ludicrous, but let me just throw an idea out there for conversation. Do we also put forth this same effort and show this same respect to the source outside of that worship setting? I mean think about it, it's not terribly difficult to come to church and "worship" with other believers. It's not even terribly difficult to plan out a worship service. But is this all that God requires of us? To worship Him?

In short, no.

Micah 6:8 says:

8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

So while He does want us to show honor/respect/love for Him, he REQUIRES us to be as the verse above states. This is just as honoring/respectful/loving towards Him as anything else. God calls us to be His "body" in the world so that our actions support our words. Can't this also be worshipful? And this is just one example.

This August, our church is beginning a 4 week series entitled Outlive Your Life.

Want to learn how to add to your worship repertoire? Come check it out.

http://www.kingscrosschurch.org/worship