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When you heard that we shall explore together today the theme of worship many of you perhaps are saying: "What do you think we have been doing all morning?"
Our bulletin even calls this time "Morning Worship Service."
We have indeed been worshipping, but what may appear as worship to us, visibly successful in the eyes of men, may not be worship in the eyes of God.
He sees and hears much more than we do.
Let me read to you a description of God's reaction to a worship service held some years ago.
It is recorded in the first chapter of Isaiah, Verses 12 through 17.
There God says:
*  "When you come to appear before me, \\     who has asked this of you, \\     this trampling of my courts?
\\ \\   Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
\\     their incense is detestable to me.
\\   New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations -- \\     I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
\\ \\   Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts \\     my soul hates, \\   They have become a burden to me; \\     I am weary of bearing them.
\\ \\   When you spread out your hands in prayer, \\     I will hide my eyes from you, \\   even if you offer many prayers, \\     I will not listen.
\\ \\   Your hands are full of blood; \\     wash and make yourselves clean.
\\   Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
\\ \\   Stop doing wrong, \\     learn to do right!
\\   Seek justice, \\     encourage the oppressed.
\\   Defend the cause of the fatherless, \\     plead the case of the widow."
{Isa 1:12-17 NIV}*
Surely these words indicate that God looks at a worship service differently than we do because he reads our hearts.
These words reveal that worship is not something we do.
Worship does not deal with what we make our bodies do, (either singing, kneeling, or praying), but worship consists of who we are, what our heart is feeling.
This is the aspect of worship I want to explore with you.
It is startling to realize that everyone worships!
Everybody!
Everywhere! Worship is the fundamental drive of life.
Atheists worship.
Infidels worship.
Skeptics worship.
Even Republicans and Democrats worship.
Lawyers, insurance agents, and even Internal Revenue Service agents worship!
All people worship for worship is the fundamental difference between humans and animals.
Animals do not worship.
They have no sense of the beyond or of the numinous.
But God has placed eternity in man's heart, as the book of Ecclesiastes tells us {Eccl 3:11}.
This urge causes men everywhere to worship.
If they are not worshipping the true God, they are worshipping a god of their own composition.
Worship, therefore, is a universal phenomenon.
The word comes from the old English /worth-ship/ which means "to ascribe worth or value to something or someone."
Clearly there are two forms of worship.
From the Christian point of view there is true worship and there is false.
The worship of all the peoples on earth fall into these two categories.
True worship is to attribute worth to a real Being, one who is truly there and who is truly worthy.
Dr. Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called /The God Who Is There/ to make the point that, although God is invisible to our eyes, he is actually there.
The function of believers is to learn what God is like and to acknowledge him -- to ascribe worth to him, to reflect upon the value, beauty, and character of God.
This is true worship.
False worship, on the other hand, is to attribute worth to an illusion which is not really there, or which is not worthy.
It is not worthy of worship because it is merely imaginary.
In the ancient world, false worship usually took the form of bowing before idols or images.
People created representations of gods, usually in the form of a human being or animal.
Then they ascribed worth to it and regarded it as extremely valuable in their lives.
They thought the god either helped them in causing their crops to grow or it protected them from some danger or evil.
Thus they ascribed great worth to speechless images and idols.
Sometimes they worshipped deceitful spirits.
Without the help of a visible image, they nevertheless worshipped an invisible spirit-being.
The American Indians did this.
In my study at home I have a portrait of three Blackfoot Indians on horseback worshipping the rising sun with their arms outstretched and their faces turned upward.
They saw the sun as a spirit-being, and they also worshipped other spirits such as those of the mountains or the waters.
They assumed that some being was there even though they could not see it.
In our modern world, men still worship.
Either they worship the one true God, or often they worship some idealized view of themselves.
It is amazing how many millions of people worship themselves.
You may be familiar with the bold words of the poem /Invictus/:
Out of the night that covers me, \\ Black as the pit from pole to pole, \\ I thank whatever gods may be \\ For my unconquerable soul.
That is the worship of self.
Sometimes worship is expressed in bowing down to or looking to some projected exaggeration of a living person.
We know how easily many make idols of actors and actresses, rock stars, and athletes.
They imagine what they are like, and then ascribe worth to that purely imaginary image.
It then becomes a driving force in their lives.
Think of how many people are still worshipping Elvis Presley.
The cheap tabloids even try to convince us that he is still alive by showing pictures of him at some shopping center or rock concert.
This is a form of idolatry, for it is ascribing value to him which is totally imaginary.
There are many today who are caught up in the New Age movement and who worship invisible sources of power.
They believe in strange spirit-beings that appear to them, they say, and give them advantages or special insights into the secrets of life.
This form of worship is widespread.
I offer these examples to show you that worship is indeed a universal practice.
Everyone does it!
The only question is: Are we practicing true worship or false?
It is apparent from this that worship is continually happening.
It underlies every action and attitude we manifest.
It colors all our life and goes far beyond a couple of hours on Sunday morning.
Worship touches us all the time.
Everything we do springs from our concept of what is important and valuable to us.
Since worship is the driving force of all human existence then when it is lost, whether it be true or false, life becomes dull, drab, and cheerless.
Men and women ultimately sink into despair because life appears to be no longer worth the living.
This fact alone indicates that worship is the most important and fundamental aspect of our existence.
Millions today are turning to drugs because they have been disillusioned in the god they have been following, especially the god of their own selves.
Out of their emptiness and absolute despair, out of their worshipless lives, they turn to anything that promises them a return of the feeling of significance.
That is what drugs appear to offer them.
On the other hand, when true worship occurs, life becomes vital, real, exciting, daring, and adventurous.
It is felt to be eminently worthwhile.
Those of us who have learned to worship the true God know this is true.
Worship is the foundation to all we do and say, and we find ourselves worshipping in some form or another all day long.
It is clear, therefore, we must give close attention to what true worship is.
How do we learn it?
How do we practice it?
To answer these questions we must turn to the Scriptures.
I want to explore the nature of worship now, and next week we will look at some of the methods of corporate worship.
In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, we learn about worship from the lips of Jesus himself.
At that time, he was speaking to a woman at the well of Samaria who was lonely and miserable after five failed marriages.
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