Quote: Tim Mayfield former director of worship for the General Baptist Conference once told a group of pastors. 'Get your definition of worship straight. Everything you do in worship renewal will flow out of that definition.'

     What he is saying is that our practice of worship is directly related to what we believe worship to be. If a church claims that worship is primarily teaching, its worship will consist of a few 'preliminaries' and a long sermon. If a church sees worship as evangelism, its entire service will move toward the invitation. If a church views worship as essentially praising God, it will worship primarily in song.5

Question: Is worship teaching, is worship evangelism or singing?

      It is all of them and much more. Basing worship on just one definition limits worship. We need a definition of worship that doesn't limit but is broad enough to include all aspects of worship.

Question: Define Worship

Read: Ps. 29:1-2; Ps. 105:1-5; Ps. 108:1-5; Ps. 99:1-3, 5,9; Ps. 103:1-5; Rev. 5:11-14

     Worship is the acknowledgment of God's supreme worth.

    Worship is our response to God's self revelation in ways that please Him.

     By its very nature, worship is fellowship with God.

     Worship is God in the midst of His people through Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit.

     Worship is a meeting between God and His people. In this meeting, God becomes present   to His people, who respond with praise and thanksgiving. thus the worshipper is brought    into personal contact with the one who gives meaning and purpose to life. From this    encounter, the worshipper receives strength and courage to live with hope in a fallen world.

Read: Ps. 100; Ex. 5:1; 2 Sam. 6:20-23; 1 Chron. 16:4; Neh. 12:27-30

     Worship is the celebration of God.6
         God has built into each of us the capability to communicate with Him and with each other through festivity and celebration. Worship taps into this side of our personality. It affirms it, releases it and frees us to experience Christ through the festive occasions which celebrate Him.

         OT worship was highly festive, celebrative and full of joy. The celebration of what God did for Israel, whether at Passover, or the Day of Atonement to name a few, were always a festive occasion.

         True worship stands in opposition to the secular trend that denies the supernatural. In the celebration of the Christ event in worship the supernatural is affirmed. Celebration in worship lifts the worshipper out of the doldrums of everyday life and brings meaning and joy.

Read: Mk. 12:30

     This is the text that I have used as the base for this study. It says worship involves the heart, mind and strength (body/hands)
It says that worship is our display of love for God.

Quotes:
 Martin Luther: In worship, we assemble in order to hear and to discuss God's Word, and then to praise God, to sing and to pray. The true heart-worshipper will welcome God's full Word of Truth and will seek to respond to it in praise and prayer and also in a changed life'

 Robert Webber: Worship is a verb. Worship is something we do, not something that is done for us. Again the mental and physical 'doing' must be acts that express the love and commitment of our total selves.

    B. Biblical words for 'worship'
 1. Hebrew: Shachah (to bow down) To prostrate oneself before another. (Gen. 22:5)

 2. Aramaic: S'egid  (to bow down) To prostrate oneself in homage
     (Dan. 3:5-6, 10-12, 28)

 3. Greek: Proskuneo (to kiss the hand of) in token of reverence. (John 4:21-24)
   a. To kiss the hand of another, in token of reverence
   b. Among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of
       profound reverence
   c. In the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one), whether in order to express respect or to make supplication.
     (John 4:21-24)

 4. Greek: Sebomai (to revere a deity) to show reverence  (Matt. 15:9; Acts 18:13)

 5. Greek: Latreuo (to serve) To render religious service of honor, to offer gifts to worship God in the observance of the rites
     instituted for His worship. (Heb. 10:2; Rom. 12:1-2)

     I find it interesting that all except 1 uses of the words for Worship involve some physical, bodily action...file that away for later. It is also interesting that all these words for worship describe something we give to God not something we get from God. In Worship it truly is better to give than to receive. The receiving is a benefit of, not a reason for, worship.

    C. Worship and Scripture
 1. God initiates our worship
  Read:  Ex. 5:1; John 4:23; Isa. 43:21; Isa. 61:11; Matt. 21:16; 1 Peter 2:9; Ex. 24:1-8
       In Ex:24:1-8  God called the   Hebrews to Mr. Sinai and established His covenant with them. This was the first corporate worship assembly of God and His people. It is here that the Hebrews were first called the Q'hal YHWH: the Peopel of God

 2. Worship recalls God's great deeds.
  Read: Ps. 136; Ps. 66:3-5; Ps. 92:4-5; Ps. 111:2

 3. Worship involves Teaching, Fellowship, Communion and Prayer
  Read: Acts 2:42-47

 4. Worship is responding to God's presence
  Read: Isa. 6:1-7; Ps. 95:6-7

 5. Worship involves our heart attitude and obedience to the commands of God
  Read: Gen. 4:3-5 (Heb. 11:4)
       There must have been an attitudinal difference between the brothers that cause God to delight in one and not in the other. It was by faith that Abel pleased God. We may assume that Cain lacked such faith.

    Deut. 10:12-13; Micah 6:6-8
           Head, heart and hands all necessary to please God.