PRAISE AND WORSHIP
Fred Vergara.
St. James' Episcopal Church, 84-07 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY 11373. February 23, 2014. Contemporary Worship Service
The time is coming---indeed it is
here now---when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in
truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” John
4:23 (New Living Translation)
My sermon
today is about Praise and Worship. What is praise? What is worship? What is the
difference between praise and worship? How do we worship in spirit and in
truth?
There was a
story of a man who wanted to buy a horse. It was quite an expensive horse so
the man asked the owner why it costs so much. The owner said, “There’s
something special about this horse. He is a religious horse. When you want the
horse to run, you say “alleluia” and when you want it to stop you say “Amen.” So
the man tested the horse. He mounted it and said, “alleluia,” and the horse
ran. He got so excited so he said again “alleluia, alleluia” and the horse ran
faster. He got even more excited that he shouted “alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia!” The horse galloped and ran even faster. As they were nearing a
cliff, the man wanted the horse to stop but he forgot the magic word. As the
horse was about to fall off the cliff, he finally remembered just on time and
said, “Amen!” They were just about a foot from the cliff. As the man realized
how lucky he was, he looked up to high heaven and shouted, “Alleluia!”
PRAISE – is thanking God for what He has
done for us and for what He is doing in our lives. One hymn of praise says ““Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King
of creation! O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation! All ye
who hear, now to His temple draw near; Praise Him in glad adoration.”
Another one says, “From the rising of the
sun, to the going down of the same, the Lord’s Name is to be praised.” (Check this video below for an example of a Praise Song)
The Bible
asks us to praise the Lord at all times because there is power in praise. When
you’re down, stressed out and troubles abound, instead of falling into
depression, try praising God and your emotional climate will immediately
change. In the Book of Acts, chapter 16,
Paul and Silas were unjustly arrested, tortured and imprisoned. Instead of
sulking and feeling sorry for their fate, Paul and Silas praised God. They sang
praise songs similar to what we have just sung, they were joyful in thanking God,
and all of a sudden, there was an earthquake and the prison doors were broken
and Paul and Silas were able to escape.
When King
David was in so much trouble and was regressing into self-pity and depression,
he spoke to himself and said, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you so
troubled? Praise God!” He began to
praise God, extolling the greatness of the Lord---and his depression vanished
like a fog at the outburst of the sun.
Praise is
oftentimes an outburst of our emotion that speaks of our gratefulness.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he was met with emotional outpouring of praise.
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The people spread palm branches and the children rejoiced and people clapped
their hands in praising Jesus for the miracles that He has done. The Pharisees
tried to prevent the people from praising God and Jesus said, “Do not prevent
them from praising God; for if you do, even these stones will cry out.”
So what is the difference between
praise and worship?
Praise is an
outburst of an emotion that speaks of our gratitude. When someone does a good
deed or makes an excellent performance, we offer our praise. If my sermon today
is great, you will praise me. If it is bad, you will criticize me. In other
words, praise is oftentimes dependent on how something has affected you. It is
a grateful acknowledgement of the good things that someone has done for you.
And because God has done so many wonderful works, and that God has given so many
blessings, then God is worthy of our praise.
Worship on
the other hand is not dependent on our emotions. Praise leads to worship but worship
is not exactly the same as praise. Praise is thanking God for what God has done
but worship is thanking God for who God is. The English word worship comes from
two words “worth” and “ship.” In other words, God is worthy of our worship---whether
or not God has done something worthy of praise. (Check this You-Tube video for an example of Worship Song)
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=vT4idPakFYE&u=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2Abp_dcUx1U%26feature%3Dshare
The best
example in the Bible about true worship is Job. Job was a God-fearing man; his
heart is after God’s heart. He strives to be faithful and obedient to God and
as a result he became wealthy and prosperous. What is noteworthy about Job as a
rich man is that his character was impeccable and his family was exemplary. But
one day, for some strange reason, Satan challenged God. He said that Job was
righteous because he was given divine favor and protection. If God would take
that protection away from him, Satan said, Job would curse God.
Well, one by
one, the riches of Job were gone. Then his wife died and his children died.
Everything and everyone he held so dear were gone and he was left with nothing
and no one. Then Job was afflicted with boils and sores all over his body. One
by one, people came and challenged Job to curse God. Then his three friends—Eliphaz,
Bildad and Zophar-- also challenged the righteousness of Job and urged him to
curse God and die. What was Job’s
response? He tore his robe and shaved
his head and he fell to the ground and worshipped and said, “Naked I came from
my mother’s womb; and naked I shall return. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
The story of
Job ended well, with his fortunes and family restored twice as much. But throughout
all his trials, Job did not blame God, Job did not curse God, Job did not waver
in his faith. Why? Because he has learned the meaning of worship. He has
learned to worship God in spirit and in truth!
Worship is not dependent on the
blessings that you receive. You do not worship God simply because you are
blessed with wealth, with power, with money, with good health, with long life,
with a lovely wife and beautiful children. No, you worship God even though you
are poor. You worship God even though you have no lovely wife or no handsome
husband or girlfriend or boyfriend. You worship God even though you have no
money, no power and not in good health. Worship is total surrender to the One
who owns everything and who holds all things together.
In one of his many
prayers, the founder of the holiness movement and the Methodist Church, John
Wesley said: “Let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me
have nothing. I freely and wholeheartedly release myself to you, O God!”
The Greek
word for worship is prokoneo , which
literally means to kiss like a dog licking its master’s hand. The Hebrew word
for worship is shachah, which means
to bow down or to prostrate in homage like a subject paying homage to a king.
The culture of bowing is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture. It is called Ojigi and it has many meanings: as a
sign of respect, as a sign of gratitude, as a sign of greeting, a sign of repentance
and humility. It is also a sign of worship, like worshiping the Emperor.
In the worship of God, all of these things are true. We praise God, we thank God, we respect God, we adore God, we bless God, we glorify God, we humble ourselves before God.
The actions
of praise are to clap our hands and to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. The
action of worship, however, is to raise our hands in total surrender, to listen
to the still small voice of the Spirit, to ojigi before the royalty of God's majesty, to proskoneo on the "Ground of our Being," to bow in awe before the mysterium tremendum, the tremendous
mystery, to shachah before the awesome holiness of the most high God!
"All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all
All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all." Amen.
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