Worship is the reason for the existence of the church.
Worship is another calling for us Christians to execute out of our love and devotion for God. It is one of the "ingredients" being in relationship with the creator. But every person has his or her own way and perspective of worship. Without a biblical reference and foundation, this will sometimes misled from the true essence of worship God seeks. John 4:23 (NLT) says that "The Father is seeking for those worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth." God wants the true essence of worship in our hearts. This time I would like to discuss different Forms of Worship to help us increase our understanding about worship. 1. SEGAD - Means to bow down and pay homage to a dignitary or somebody higher than you. "So all these officials came and stood before the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald shouted out, people of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king's command! when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments, bow down to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue. Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace!" - Daniel 3:3-6 (NLT) The Hebrew word for worship of God that carries the fullness of God's expectation and desire is the word SHACHAH. The Greek word for worship is the word PROSKUNEO, and both of them carry a meaning of bowing down but it does not stop there only. It carries a greater meaning than that. We can see that there are other words that talk about bowing down. If the words Shachah and Proskuneo means to bow down and that is all God desires, then He could have used the word SEGAD instead of using that special word Shachah and Proskuneo. The word SEGAD means to bow down and pay homage to a dignitary or somebody higher than you. And it may not include your heart. It only refers to your body posture. I am sure a lot of people in Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom didn't really want to bow before all these idols that he commanded. Some of them may do it unwillingly. Some of them may do it out of fear. After all the command goes out and says whoever does not bow down would be burned. A lot of people bow down not because they respect that golden image or treat it as a god. They do it because if they don't do it THEY WILL FRY!. It is either bow or fry. And many chose to bow, but their hearts are not involved in that bowing down. Some do it out of fear. Some do it because they believe that Nebuchadnezzar has some supernatural power. We have the story in Daniel Chapter 3 where the music was played and everyone has to bow. There were three heads sticking up, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow. When the king gave them another chance, they still would not bow. The whole Chapter 3 the word SEGAD is used. The word SEGAD is never used in a true sense of worship to our God. This tells us that God doesn't just want our outward form, our outward worship, our physical worship or posture alone. 2. ATSAB - Means to make some objects an idol and to burn incense or give offerings. "... Besides, the women added, do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? of course not!" - Jeremiah 44:19 (NLT) Here is a worldly form of worship. The word ATSAB is to make some objects an idol and to burn incense or give offerings. This is Animism. Animism is the worship of objects, stones, and trees. People become afraid just because somebody put an alter there. But the altars we read about in Genesis are not the same altars that we look at today. The altars they made were just plain stones to make blood sacrifices. But here, it is to make the object a god, as if the object has spiritual power. People would worship all kinds of things. They worship the sun, the moon and the trees. All they did is ATSAB worship. In Atsab Worship people worship with things and objects. It could be a food offering or an incense offering. Some Christians has a concept of God in that way. They may not be like those that seek God who think that worship is something you do. They think the moment you put your face to the ground you are worshiping, you are fulfilling the act of worship. Notice that tithes and offerings are part of our worship. But they are only part of our worship. Yet some people think that worshiping God means to give Him something. If that's our thinking, we only understood ATSAB Worship. On Sundays, we may not bring something to the altar and burn some incense to God. But the principle if we think in our heart that doing something for God or giving something is the essence of worship, then we are reducing worship to Atsab worship. If God is your first love, you want to give Him your life, but the essence of worship is not that. I give God my life and I bring to God my tithes and offerings because I love him. It is the result of my worship. It is not because I worship him with our tithes and offerings. In other words, God don't want a single centavo from us. He wants our lives more than our money. When he has our life and he becomes our Lord, we automatically surrender our tithes and our offerings to him. It is the result or consequence of our relationship with God. 3. ABAD - Means to serve. "He sent messengers throughout all Israel summoning those who worshiped Baal. They all came - not a single one remained behind - and they filled the temple of Baal from one end to other. And Jehu instructed the keeper of the wardrobe, Be sure that every worshiper of Baal wears one of these robes. So robes were given to them." - 2 Kings 10:21-22 (NLT) The word ABAD means to serve. The word ABAD is used here referring to Baal worshipers. Abad worship is the kind that only dwells in service. Just doing something all the time. Whereas in ATSAB is giving something. If you stop giving, you are not worshiping. You notice that some of these definitions have reference to what is out there prevailing in the world. If they stop giving something to those idols, it is tantamount to stop worshiping. These are all definitions out there. For others, if they stop serving, they stop worshiping. 4. EUSEBEO - Means reverential fear. "So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: "To an unknown God", this God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I'm telling you about." - Acts 17:22-23 (NLT) A worship based on fear. And that is not the worship that God wants. It is EUSEBEO. Eusebeo is based on fear. If I don't worship God, something bad is going to happen. But there is an element of that that still plays in Christian heart and mind. The principle is still there and Christians can still end with Eusebeo worship. How do we do it? We know that the blessing of God that comes when we obey him. But when we turn that negatively, we say that if we don't worship him, something bad is going to happen. When the bad thing does happen, you say, "I knew its going to happen." And in fact, your faith is so built up in the wrong sense that when you didn't worship him that day you would expect something bad would happen. That is EUSEBEO worship. 5.THERAPEUO - Means healing, wholeness (Therapy) - Worship for it's therapeutic value. THERAPEUO speaks about worshiping God because of it's therapeutic value. It's a bit selfish in that. We take worship like a medicine. What God can do for us? worship him because he can do this and that for you. That's the opposite of Eusebeo worship. In Eusebeo worship, you worship him so that he won't do something. Now you go to the extreme and say, "worship him so that he can do something." This kind of worship still isn't right. We worship him because of the therapeutic value of worship. We get something out of it. We get healing, we get blessing, we get a tangible feeling of him, we get encouraged. Yes! all these things happen when you really worship. But when we worship because of that, it is not the essence of what God wants. 6. THRESKEIA - Worship defined as to be religious observance or being religious about something. "Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud..." - Colossians 2:18 (NLT) THRESKEIA worship is defined as to be religious observance or being religious about something. Sadly, if you think that is only true about non-Christians, I want you to know that even Christianity ends up with rituals that are no more worship. A lot of traditional churches have traditional rites. It is a Threskeia worship where we follow some prescribed order in a bulletin - congregations bow down, congregations stand, sing hymn no. 288 - Amazing Grace. Someone who is not even a worshiper of God plans the whole service beforehand in the church office. This can be classified as a Christian ritual and some churches call it worship. Anything can be ritual. Threskeia worship is ritualistic worship. Clapping, dancing, singing & praising in tongues can happen in true worship. But when they are instructed rigidly instead of being open to the Holy Spirit then it becomes mechanical, empty and wrong. 7. SEBAZO - Means to venerate, respect. - Venerate means to pay homage and respect to "One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worship God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying." - Acts 16:14 (NLT) Here is another one from the book of Acts 16:14. A certain woman named Lydia who worship God. The word worship here is the word SEBAZO. And it means to venerate. To venerate is to pay homage and respect to. Now Lydia in Acts 16:14 has not come to know Jesus yet. But she has a deep respect for God in her heart. She would not take God's name in vain, when God's name is mentioned. In General, she is the type of person who really respect God. And that indicates her openness to God because she was already having some respect and direction towards God. SEBAZO means that we respect God. Now some need to have that kind of SEBAZO or respect for God because they don't have respect for God in the way they refer to God in their conversation and daily life. In heaven, every word is so vital. I mean you dare not say anything except what God wanted you to say. We talk about entering his gates with thanksgiving, enter his courts with praise. There is more there. Wait until you go to the Holy of holies. The four creatures around the throne with the twenty four elders say, "Holy, holy, holy." We need Sebazo to a certain extend. Respect of God in your life will build a form of devoutness and outward holiness. 8. SHACHAH - Means to bow down yourself. - Worship in its essence means to humble ourselves to God. "Stay here with the donkey, Abraham told the servants. The boy and I will travel a little farther, we will worship there, and then we will come right back." - Genesis 22:5 (NLT) The word used here is the word SHACHAH, which means to bow down yourself. But it is different from SEGAD. Segad means to bow down, Shachah means to bow down yourself. Remember Daniel Chapter 3, the people bow down themselves, they are bowing down under threat of life. Bow or fry, so they bow. Here SHACHAH is God said Abraham give me your son. Abraham took the son himself, bound the son himself, sacrifice the son himself. He himself bow down before God. He all did these to show SHACHAH worship for God. The essence and the meaning of worship is a humble heart. There is a Hebrew and Greek words for humble. But Shachah is an inward condition of the heart. God always opposes pride, "In the same way, you younger men must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for God opposes the proud but favors the humble" - 1 Peter 5:5 (NLT) Pride is the very opposite of the essence of worship. God opposes, tears down, removes, and resists pride. But he love to see people bowing down not only outwardly Segad but Shachah in their heart, they are contrite and they say, "God we worship you." The essence of worship is a humble heart. 9. PROSKUNEO - Means to kiss toward - Humbling our heart, our mind, bending of our wills to God. "They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave them gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." - Matthew 2:11 (NLT) Look over at Matthew Chapter 2. The Greek definition of PROSKUNEO is to kiss toward. But look at it very carefully and you will see the depths that are in line with Shachah. Now they also have gifts to him but was the consequence or result of their worship. We confuse between the result of worship and the essence of worship. You can give those gifts but if those gifts come from pride, worship is automatically gone out. Although worship involves giving ourselves to God. You can sing to God and singing is a part of worship. But when it is not from a humble heart, worship disappears from the scene. The essence of it is humility. If humility is there, all those gifts are correct. Look at such humility when they fell down and they bow down before him, knowing that he was just a child. PROSKUNEO is not just kissing towards. You are at the feet of Jesus kissing his feet recognizing you are zero. I mean that is the feeling you will have if you are kissing somebody's feet. The kissing on the toes and feet is one of the most humiliating acts. And you feel like you were a dirt. You are nothing. That's part of Proskuneo. You are bowing down and kissing not standing up. PROSKUNEO speaks about humbling of our heart, our mind, and bending our wills to God. That is the meaning and definition of worship.
0 Comments
Lincoln Brewster preaching about The Power of Weakness |
AuthorWarren Jhun Ocampo Archives
September 2017
Categories |