Notes

Low Cost Contemporary Worship In Lewes
the Essence of Worship
Is there an improvement by means of worship and the essence? Yes, as a matter of fact, many churches today are fighting the proper form of worship. So widespread is this issue that many churches have divided into two services on Sunday mornings. In a single service the form of worship is traditional music. Only hymns, piano, and organ are employed while in the other service only contemporary music can be used. One service is youthful, dressed down, loud, and ?rock-and-rollish? Assemblies of God Church near Lewes . In the other, well you guessed it. The music is softer, older, and church hymnals are used to reflect on what while they're being sung.


I want to talk with you today about the essence of worship. The essence of worship is imperative for ?true? worship in the church,Guest Posting or anyplace you worship God. Jesus predicted the demise of worship form when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter four. You might remember the scripture, ?Jesus thought to her, ?Woman, trust me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father?one hour is coming, and now is, once the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.? (John 4:21; and 23-24 NASB).

THE BRAND NEW Testament reveals a stunning silence about the outward types of corporate worship and a radical intensification of worship as an inner, Godward experience of the heart. The silence about outward forms is obvious in the truth that the gathered life of the church is never called ? Churches in Lewes ? in the New Testament. Moreover, the main Old Testament word for worship is virtually absent from the brand new Testament letters. Its usage clusters in the Gospels (26 times) and in the Book of Revelation (21 times). However in the Epistles of Paul it occurs only one time, namely, in I Corinthians 14:25 where the unbeliever falls down at the power of prophecy and confesses God is in the assembly. It doesn?t occur at all in the letters of Peter, James, or John.

The Old Testament idea, captured in the Greek word proskuneo, implied a physical falling down in reverence before an obvious majesty. This happened as people found the visible, incarnate Christ in the Gospels. Also it happened in Revelation because the saints and angels and elders were actually in the current presence of the visible, risen Christ. However in the age between the ascension and the second coming Christ isn't visibly here to worship. Therefore, worship is radically internalized and delocalized. In Matthew 15:8-9
Jesus says, ?This people honors me making use of their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.? Worship that will not come from the heart is vain, empty. It isn't authentic worship.

Consider what Paul does for some of the other words linked to Old Testament worship. For example, the next most typical word for worship in the Old Testament (after proskuneo) is the word latreup that is usually translated ?serve? as in Exodus 23:24, ?You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them? (NASB). When Paul uses this word for Christian worship, he goes out of his way to make sure that we realize he means not just a localized or outward form for worship practice but a nonlocallized, spiritual experience. In fact, he takes it as far as to treat virtually all of life as worship when lived in the right spirit. Here?s another example, in Romans 1:9 he says, ?I serve [or worship] [God] with my spirit in the gospel of his Son.? And in Philippians 3:3, Paul says that true Christians ?worship? [God] in the Spirit of God?and put no confidence in the flesh? (NASB). On the other hand he says in Romans 12:1, for Christians to ?present your bodies as a full time income sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.? Paul sees all of life and ministry being an expression of this inner experience of worship.

Here's my website: https://midwayassemblyofgod.com/ministry