South Texas Bible Ministry

Training Center

THE. 311 Prayer and Worship

Introduction & Week 1

Ricky Joseph, Ph.D.

Course Description

• This course examines the main elements of public, private, or personal and spiritual praise and worship as described in Scripture, as well as, focuses on the manner, development, content, practice and formation of praise and worship in regular congregational settings.

Course Objectives

• Understand and discuss the call to worship in terms of God’s requirement for, invitation to, reward of worship, as well as, the substance of, getting to the heart of and the One we worship

• Understand and discuss the power of worship: its purifying power, the biblical foundation for, the promise of, the songs of, and the affirmation of worship.

• Understand and discuss the pursuit of worship to include the sacrifice of , pattern for; physical expressions, centerpiece, hands of; leading others in; and finale of worship at the Father’s Throne.

Requirements

• Course Texts:• Hayford, J. (2005). The reward of worship. Grand

Rapids , MI. Baker Publishing Group: Chosen Books.

• Reading 2 to 3 chapters each week• Class participation through questions & Discussion• Examinations:

– Take-Home Mid-Term (Multiple Choice)– In-Class Final (Essay)

• Grading: – Exam 1 & 2 100 points ea. – Class Participation 25 points

Introduction

• Their dedication to worship?– Muslim– Jew

• Hebrews 12: 25-26See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

• Hebrews 12:28-29 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:For our God is a consuming fire.

The Worship Awakening

• What is it about?– Not about music, becoming “contemporary”,

cultural awareness, being “cool, hip, or with it”, misty-eyed intimacy with God, or theological accuracy about God

– It’s about the formation of hearts in the presence of God, the shaping of disciples who know Him through being with Him, the transforming work the Holy Spirit achieves when pure worship occurs, and it’s about preparation for the last battle.

Manifest Presence

• The work of the Holy Spirit

– His is the call to worship: He wants to help us glorify Christ

– His is the directive to approach God’s throne: there is the fountainhead of power.

– He is the Author of our manual for worship: God’s Word awaits our study

Manifest Presence

• Why at this season in Church history is worship becoming the watchword of the moment?

– God almighty is stirring hearts to worship because He is about to make an entrance. Because worship is pivotal to His being welcomed into earthly settings and situations, His Spirit is moving His people to roll out the red carpet – the King is coming to visit you.

– God desires to enter the arena of human circumstance

– Worship is the invitation to which God responds

Manifest Presence

• So while God is waiting at an entrance where millions of others are, He is working – making entrances. He is invading circumstances, moving in power, demonstrating His grace, revealing His sovereign might, extending His Kingdom mercies and transforming people, churches, communities and whole regions of the earth

• The common denominator of these visitations is that clouds of praise to His name have preceded the rain of His blessing – of His arrival in power

Are These Troubling Statements

“God is waiting for a human invitation to manifest Himself”

“Worship is the means for inviting Him to do so”

• How is this supported or not supported by the Word of God?

Manifest Presence

• His dealings with humankind are flavored by a self-imposed insistence that He await the welcome of human hearts who consciously decide they want Him in their lives

• God’s will, in the realm of earth’s affairs and human circumstances, is that humans respond to the reality of His love and power by issued invitation.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96bLiq0qc10

What The Lord Taught about Worship

• By the Lord’s own instructive pattern for prayer, we are taught that worship is the steppingstone into the presence of God. He tells us: – After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which

art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it isin heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

What The Lord Teaches about Worship

1. Come, knowing you have a relationship with the Creator who made you. “Our Father in Heaven

2. Worship, acknowledging the exceeding glory of His holiness and wonder: “Hallowed be Your name.”

3. Invite His activity into your world – asking for heaven’s best into earth’s need: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

Ephesian 3:20-21

• “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

• An Example of God’s readiness to work mightily when human hearts align with His throne and thereby invite, invoke or welcome His presence

• The revelation of Scripture has defined limits as to what God will impose or allow without human consent or choice

Manifest Presence

• Worship brings ever deepening and expanding dimensions of God at work in our world

• Worship opens a doorway to the power of His presence, confounding dark powers and overthrowing sin’s destructive operations.

2 Corinthians 10:3-53 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Awesome, Abiding and Amazing

• God’s Awesome Presence– God is omnipresent and all-seeing.– God is just and takes into account all we say and do– We will each give an account for those words and

deeds

• God’s Abiding Presence – God relating to us in tenderness, understanding and

warmth of a personal relationship

• God’s Amazing Presence– Acts: 4:24, 29-31– Isaiah 64:1-2

Their “Calling” Summons Ours

• The idea of worship as a means of partnering with God and welcoming His power is too seldom understood:

– Worship is more than an objective exercise, worthily extolling His glory; and

– Worship is more than a devotional exercise intimately pursuing His fellowship; but

– Worship is also a biblical means of entering into a role of partnership with God’s almightiness

The Invitation to Worship

• Revelation 4:1-21After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

• Reading this passage. “Where is your focus?”

The Prophetic Picture of Worship

• John falls before the glorified Christ in worship• The Church is called to “hear what the Spirit is saying: as a

worshipful response to the present “word” of Christ to His people• Martyred souls gone before us into glory are heard calling from

heaven’s altar of worship to the Most High• The Church, delivered from out of the great Tribulation, is heard

extolling God and the Lamb before His throne• The dynamic power residual in the cumulative worship and prayers

before the throne is witnessed as it prompts God’s acts of judgment• The contrast to worship that honors God is seen as the text reveals

the destiny of destruction coming upon those who “worship demons and idols”

• Worship thunders from heaven as the last trumpet is sounded;

Worship appears to play a partnering role in God’s economy, seeming to ignite a release on earth of those things ordained in heaven

The Arrival of the Lamb

• Just as the Creator Father is extolled at the beginning of the text, the exaltation of the Redeemer’s Son begins as those around the throne sing, “Your are worthy … and have redeemed us to God by Your blood”

Revelations 5:1And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

John Beholds Worship at the Throne

• John is seeing creatures at worship almost immediately following earth’s creation

• He is hearing praise to God moments following the majesty of the Almighty’s spangling the heavens with the stars, and

• What he describes of the consummate crescendo of worship yet to be realized is an extension of worship into which we are moving presently

The Absence of Worship

• Why worship becomes distorted, confused or trivialized• Why worship sometimes becomes a show– a performance

taken over by once-sincere leaders who, like Lucifer, have become blind to the folly of preoccupation with their own achievement in leading worship.

• Why worship is too seldom allowed to invade Church life and becomes packaged in ways that assure human control, rather than sensitive companionship with the Holy Spirit

• Why worship, when it is embraced biblically in an incarnation of the truth of the Word is the key that will unlock healthy personal life and service for anyone, and release dynamic breakthroughs of evangelism and spiritual growth in any congregation

God’s Will Barricaded

2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.5But then, an elder speaks: “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and loose its seven seals

What is John Witnessing

• The full spectrum of all redemptive history, beginning with Jesus Christ’s return to heaven at the time of His ascension. Yet at the same time , he is used by the Holy Spirit to present us with a full spectrum of heaven’s worship –from the creation of all things to the consummation of all things on this planet.

Why Worship for the Lamb

• Jesus now arrives in heaven, returning to the eternal glory, mission accomplished!

• His presence here, depicted and lauded as the victorious Lamb, shows us worship extending from that moment until the last trump is sounded and the ultimate triumph realized

• His presence here declares that the price of salvation for humankind is paid in full, His provision for their justification and sanctification is secured

• His dominion shown here over all powers of hell and every force of evil makes it possible for human vessels to be cleansed of their filth and sin and be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that He can commission a people for His purpose

The Reward of Worship

• Heaven’s crescendo of praise rises in the atmosphere of– A revealed, victorious Savior– A certain engagement of the ongoing struggle

between the Truth and the liar, the Savior and the thief, the Living God and the evil one

• The Holy Spirit’s Call today is:– A call to Spirit-filled worship– A call to spiritual warfare– A call to steadfast commitment beyond the

paraphernalia and excitement of a worship renewal

• Worship is God’s gift for you

• Not God worshiping man, but God designing worship as a means for His beloved creatures to know Him, to enter into the abundance of His fulfilling and fruitful purpose for us. And to find the high delight of His realized will for us, in us and through us