A hmaanmi thangthatnak le biaknak cu zeidah asi?

 

What is true praise and worship? 

1. P&W comes from knowing the love of God: Worship should be our daily life style. It doesn't start when the p&w team come on the stage and begin singing. It has already started in our hearts. You should carry our own cross. That means we worship God and everyday and minute. 

 Paul says that he gives life as a living sacrifice to show our worship to God. 

The true worship starts with knowing the love of God in our heart and feel His peace and grace within us, and follow out. It is called inside-out. 

2. Taste the love of God yourselves: David also says that his life is filled with the love of God.  P&W comes from within because we know and experience the love of God. When you really experience the love of God and His goodness, happiness and joy - praise and worship automatically come out from our heart. When we taste God's love ourselves, we can feel and confidence to say that God is good. Then comes automatically praise and worship.

Therefore, 

Receiving Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord is significant.     

3. Repentance: Without repentance we can't give praise and worship God. What God wants to do is to repent and turn away from sin. (My question is - what is feeling sorry and repentance?).

4. Outward worship:  Forgive others.

5. Inward worship: Forgiveness comes from inside. It is a matter of heart.

6. Upward worship: it is how we show our love, respect and relationship with God. It can be by praying, giving, singing, thanksgiving, obedience, .... it is about God and you. 

Hebrew 11: Fathers of Faith or "The Faith Chapter"  

• Abel - offered a better sacrifice to God (v.4). Gave the best and what God wanted.
• Enoch - walked faithfully with God and pleased Him (v. 5). Walked with God.
• Noah - built the ark even before it rained (v. 7). It took 120 years. 
• Abraham - obeyed God and left his home, trusting God's promise (vv. 8-10). Obeyed God's command.
• Sarah - believed God would give her a child even in old age (v. 11). Believed God's promise.
•  Moses - chose to follow God rather than live in Egypt's luxury (v.v. 24-26). Humble and chose to serve God.
• Rahab, Gideon, David Samuel - all acted with courage because they trusted God.  

The author of Hebrew has a very significant purpose for his audience. One of them is to worship God with all our heart. Giving the best to God. 

- The best may differ from one person to another. Fx. Abel offered the best to God from his farm. A widow offered to coins. 

- Maybe God wants your dirty life, just give to Him. Actually we don't have anything that is worth to give and offer to God, but our worship.  

 In the OT, God set age standards for serving in ministry.

•  At age 20, men could serve as soldiers (Numbers 1:3)
• At age 25, Levites could assist in the Tabernacle - helping, cleaning, and serving (Number 8:24-26).
• At age 30, they could take on leadership roles - such priests, worship leaders, or those leading the ministry (Number 4:3). 

This shows that spiritual maturity and preparation are important before serving in higher positions of ministry. 

  

Worship in Spirit and Truth

 Two kinds of worship.

• Samaritan: They worship with all their heart. But lack the knowledge of God. They believed only the first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch). They were faithful. However, they were lack in knowing God and the truth.  
• Judaism: They know what is truth and who is God. But they relaid on traditions. Their worship was not from their hearts.  

In which position, are we right now in relation to worship? Are we lack of knowing God and truth just like Samaritan or like the Jews who have full of knowledge about God and truth but not from heart? 

Jews like Pharisees - pretended to be religious. It is like lips service. In contrast, Samaritans were lack of knowledge of God, so Jesus said, "You don't know what you worship."

John 4:24: Jesus said that his worshipers should worship Him in spirit and in truth for God is spirit. 

 We need to have both the heart of Worship and the knowledge of God in our worship. There must be "the heart" when we worship God. Therefore, we must worship God with all our heart.

 What it means to worship God all of our heart?

 It is to come to God as we are. God wants our commitment than our perfection. God can change you. Not by yourself. Therefore, don't your perfection for coming back to God. But believe and trust God that He can change you, transform you.

 Ultimately, worship God in spirit and truth mean to open our heart and know Him. To know Him, read the Bible, spend time with God, prayer, and thanksgiving. 

 One example from the Bible is David. He didn't care people when he worshiped God. He came to God with all his heart.