1. How do we meet Jesus with others? WORSHIP Comes from the old english word “weorth – scipe” weorth = worth scipe = shape Experiencing and being affected by what God is worth In response, shaping our lives around His worth WHAT is worship?

2. WHEN do we worship?

3. JESUS CHRIST HAS FULFILLED THE O. T. WORSHIP RITUAL COMPLETELY! Heb 9:11-14 Eph 2:14-18 Gal 3:26-28 Matt. 27:50-52 Jesus is our sacrifice and our High Priest Jesus broke down the dividing wall In Christ we are all equal Jesus tore the curtain between us and God JESUS REMOVED EVERY BARRIER BETWEEN US AND GOD’S PRESENCE

4. SO WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN FOR US? 1. We are free to see all of life as worship. 1 Cor. 6:19 1 Peter 2:4-5 We are God’s temple We are the priests What are those spiritual sacrifices that Peter speaks about? Rom 12:1 Heb 13:16 our daily lives our service to those around us

5. Worship is conducting our lives asking: “Since God is the most important, most glorious thing in my life, how should I be acting/living in this area?”

6. 2. As Christians, we are called not only to individual worship, but to corporate worship. Heb 10:19-25 To spur each other on towards love and good deeds To continue to meet together to worship God and serve others To encourage one another more each day.

7. Both individual and corporate worship are critical in a believer’s life. If you think worship is only about you and God and you don’t need to be part of a local body of believers: -how will you be able to encourage and be encouraged by others? -you will become discouraged and self-centered in your faith If you think worship only happens on Sunday morning at church: -spiritual growth in your life will be minimal at best.

8. HOW do we worship? 1. In Word and Spirit. - John 4:23,24 Worship is not just listening to the Word, but responding to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.

9. 2. In Word and Sacrament Matt 28:19 - we worship God when we are baptized. In baptism we publicly proclaim we belong to Christ. 1 Cor. 11:23-29 – We worship God by partaking in communion. In the Lord’s Supper we continually remember what Jesus has done for us

10. TO SUM UP: 1.All of life is worship. 2.We have a great deal of freedom in how we worship. 3.We can expect more glorious, intimate worship than the people of God had in the past. – Heb 12:18-23, 28 4.All of this is just a foretaste of what is coming! – Rev. 5:9-14

11. 1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, 8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”