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Podcast 11 - Worship
33 Plays16 days ago
Come join us as we talk about some of the different aspects of worship.
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Transcript
Introduction to Worship Discussion
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome back to Grove Hill Podcast. We're excited to have you with us today. Pastor Kyle joining me on my right, our student pastor, and for the first time ever, our worship guy here is, Mr.
What is Worship?
00:00:20
Speaker
Jaden Coletti.
00:00:21
Speaker
We talked him into joining us today, particularly because we wanted to talk about the subject of worship. Worship is one of those words we throw around a lot church. We we know talk about worship. We say we're going to worship. Obviously, some of those applications are not correct. words were just kind of And I think even sometimes our expectations are incorrect.
00:00:41
Speaker
So going back to the very beginning of what worship is, worship is very simply um acknowledging the worth
Misconceptions about Worship
00:00:48
Speaker
of something. it comes from an old English word that literally means worth-ship.
00:00:52
Speaker
um And so this idea of worship is not just about what we picture in our head when we talk about going to church. It's about a lot of different things. In fact, I've invited Jayden. Jayden's done a lot of teaching on this in our church, and i hope going continue to do more as he meets us. We have some of the sweetest worship in our church. In fact, this past Sunday, man, was just an amazing time of worship. singing prayer you could just feel the spirit of god in there and so thanks jaden for leading us in that but one of the things you talk about as lot is some of the misconceptions behind worship which i think a lot of us have um people both inside and outside the church when they hear that word so why don't we walk through some of those misconceptions you've talked about unless let's break them down a little bit and hear some of what you've learned in your study of worship Yeah, um I think one of the biggest misconceptions that we hear is that worship is music, right? And kind of have that misconception, a lot of it because of church leaders not doing a great job explaining what what worship really is. Yeah. um Which I think music is a great form of worship. It's one of my favorite forms
Worship Beyond Church
00:01:58
Speaker
of worship. Right. ah
00:01:59
Speaker
but It's so much more than that. And we've got some scriptures I think we're going to share that kind of help us realize that it's a lot more than just ah you know those moments at church when we're in corporate singing together, that it goes all the way down to our daily lives. and the way that we live when no one's watching. I'd say when I was a kid, singing was all I thought worship was. yeah Because just like you said, the way the church refers to it, and now we're going to go for a time of worship, right? And we sing, and then we go back to the sermon, or we go back to prayer whatever. But we were at an associational meeting a couple years ago, and the agenda was listed, and it was, you know, we were doing this business, this business, and then it said, worship in the form of singing.
00:02:43
Speaker
And i thought, well, that's great because this whole time we've been doing this business of God's business, we've been worshiping. Yes. But now we're going to do it in the form of song. And so it really ah kind of broke a ah chain in my brain where it's like, okay, this is an everyday, all
Recognizing Worship in Daily Life
00:02:58
Speaker
of life thing. And Colossians 3, 23 says, whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as if you're working for the Lord, not man. And so whatever we do, singing, praying, singing, pulling weeds in the garden, yep we could acknowledge Christ in all of that. Yeah, that's important. um Because again, going back to the real meaning of the word, ah it's as simple as whatever you do can become worship. Right. right
00:03:25
Speaker
So talk to us a little bit about another one. What's another one of the misconceptions you have? Another one is that worship only happens at church. So think people think, you know, you show up to church on Sunday, you kind of check a box for the week, and, ah you know, that's kind of your worship yeah to God. And they forget that when they go home or they go to work or school or whatever, that you're still worshiping something. It's just, are you still worshiping God or are you...
00:03:50
Speaker
Are you following whatever you want to do? um But one of my favorite passages about worship comes from John chapter
Worship in Spirit and Truth
00:03:57
Speaker
4. And I got that pulled up here. And this is where Jesus is talking to the woman at the well. um And she's kind of... ah you know Saying, you and me, we're different. You know you worship there. um i worship here. we're you know we're We're separated. And Jesus is pretty much telling her you know the time is coming where we you know it doesn't matter where you worship, whether it's Jerusalem or some area wherever, yeah um but that it's going to be about your heart. And he tells her ah that it's about worshiping in spirit and in truth. And for a long time, I was like, what does that mean? um
00:04:35
Speaker
But I think spirit means you know filled with the Holy Spirit. yeah And then truth is based off of
Living Worship through Choices
00:04:41
Speaker
God's Word. um So as long as you're you know you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you're worshiping wherever you go um if you're being obedient to that spirit and you're relying off of God's Word and not just off of your emotions.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah. um First Corinthians 1031 was a verse I was looking It says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. So it echoes the verse that you just read, talks about what you're talking about, whatever you do, giving glory to God. That's that's the very definition of worship. So.
00:05:12
Speaker
An example of not necessarily being in a building, but if you have patience with your child when they're testing you, that's actually worship. Because in reverence to God and what God has told you to do in raising your children, you have acted in a certain way. right So what you've done is you've placed...
00:05:29
Speaker
God and his desires for you as preeminent in your life, which means it's worship. So you went, you make the whole pulling weed in the garden routine. So sure yeah, i think I think it's whatever you're doing that obeys God's truth and commands. And so, um, you know, someone cuts you off in traffic. Do you lose your mind and start saying all the words or are you showing grace and mercy? And is your life a living sacrifice for him? Um, I think that's what breaks it down to, to the worship part. yeah I think also it's like so many people think that worship is just like how other people see you. But, ah you know, it's what really shows what you worship is when you're by yourself and nobody's watching you, but you're still choosing to obey and yeah and do the right thing because, you know,
Physical Expressions of Worship
00:06:15
Speaker
you know you have that love for God. um
00:06:19
Speaker
I'll tell you this, um and I just recently came across this, and I think it's absolutely true. If you show me as a man, if you show me your phone, your checkbook, and your calendar, I can tell you what you worship. yeah It's so revealing where we spend our time, where we spend our energy, what we focus on. And if you're spending a whole lot of time at the golf course and you're not spending any time in prayer, then golf course has probably become a god to you and in some ways. So let's go to another misconception. What else you got over there?
00:06:50
Speaker
um So another one I have is like, you know, worship is more than stillness. I grew up in a church that ah turned kind of legalistic over time. yeah And it was kind of to the point where you almost felt like,
00:07:06
Speaker
shamed if you were to ever outwardly express your worship with anything other than just, you know, arms at your side, yeah looking uncomfortable. and I've been in those before. Yes. So, um you know, i I grew up hearing like, oh, you know, that was just a thing way back then that's not applicable for us now. But as I read the Psalms and, you know, some other places in scripture, I realized like, no, there's outwardness ways that we can express our worship to God that he he desires from us. And i kind of realized that that was wrong teaching. Right. So.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. If you read the Bible carefully, one of the things it tells us about worship is there's a lot of different physical things you can do in worship from bowing to lifting your hands to clapping, even to shouting as part of your worship. Yeah, and I love when I sat in your class, when you talked about this, you did a fantastic job of pointing out that there's even different words for worship in the Bible, in the Hebrew, especially that we don't even understand what they
Depth of Worship in Trials
00:08:04
Speaker
are saying. And so we have this oversimplified version of worship. But but there's some other things that worship includes in there. Yep.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah, a bunch of different like physical ah meanings to the word praise. I won't go into all of them, but yeah different examples like you know one word for praise in Hebrew might mean to bow down. Another one might be to raise your hands. Another one might mean to you know lift your voice and shout for God. um But in our English language, we just have praise. praise yeah And it's cool when you realize, oh, this is what the intended meaning of that was. so Notice he said, shout for God, not shout at your wife and your children. That's not worship, okay? All right, give us another one. What you got?
00:08:47
Speaker
um So I would say the other one is kind of the opposite of that, where some people believe, unless you're getting hype, yeah that you're not worshiping. And I think that that is false as well.
00:08:59
Speaker
um You know, you think of like... Job's story. I just turned there. Hey, that's how you read something that you can just read it. I'm gonna read it. It was after Job had gone through all the turmoil. Yeah, um his family house servants had been wiped out um and at verse 20 it says at this Job got up tore his robe shaved his head and fell to the ground in worship. And it said, naked I come from my mother's womb, naked I will depart. The Lord gave me and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.
00:09:32
Speaker
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. And so it wasn't an act of, woohoo, God, thank you. Whoa. you know yeah It was more like just a humbling before him, reverence before the Lord. um It probably wasn't a song. It was more like yeah some hurt going on there. And it was it was the act that he didn't sin in that time. He was obedient to the Lord. I'm thankful for like moments like that where it says, and he
Nature and Purpose of Worship
00:09:59
Speaker
worshiped. Yes. Because it shows us, like even in those times of like grief and pain and questions you know against God, um that we can still worship and he still calls us to worship even in that suffering. Yeah. I would even, and y'all feel free to disagree, but I would even argue that one example of where we worship and we don't realize it's worship is that when we come into times of trial, testing, you know persecution, that we go back to God first instead of going to the glass of wine or the medication or...
00:10:32
Speaker
but all the other things, even the whining and complaining. Right. If you go back to God first, what that says is, I believe you are preeminent in my life and that I can trust you to help me in this situation. Because no doubt Job was struggling. Absolutely. He wasn't like, oh, this is great, Lord. Thanks for taking this away. yeah No, he was probably pretty upset at that point. Yep.
00:10:50
Speaker
But he didn't sin in that. he Yeah. He just brought it to the Lord. And you flip over to the New Testament, Paul and Silas get arrested and thrown in jail. What's the first thing they do? They go to God and start singing. and They start worshiping, man. And, and, Wow, what a radical thought that whether it's that kind of loss or you know Paul and Silas' persecution, worship changes things yeah for people. It really does. and and And not just the obedient side, but also the singing side as well. and It's probably a funny reference, but Caleb does their 30-day challenge where they will say, hey cut out all the other music and only listen to this worship music or this christian music that's good and uh the testimonies that come through that of lives being changed and positivity happening uh because you're just constantly giving praise to lord um is pretty cool yeah so i'm going to steal your last one because it's one of my favorites um worship is more than your preferences um
00:11:41
Speaker
um you know As a pastor, been in ministry for 41 years almost now. In my time as pastors, I hear over and over again, why don't we sing more of this? I don't like that song. Your preaching is the too much of this. The prayer was too long. The AC. The There's all kinds of stuff. and i am I'm this close to having enough time.
00:12:04
Speaker
Nerve in me when people come to me and go i just didn't like that song going tough luck cupcake We weren't singing to you in first place. This isn't about what you prefer It's about what gives him the place that he alone deserves in our lives um And I would go so far and I would guess you two guys would probably agree I would go so far as to say if you sit in a building with other believers and you choose not to worship you're living in disobedience.
00:12:32
Speaker
Sure. Okay? Yeah. Now, I'm not going to so far as to say if you don't sing, because sometimes sitting still before God and listening is is a worship. But if you're there 52 weeks out of the year and you never sing a song, I'm guessing you're probably not just listening to God. You're probably choosing not to worship
Commanded Worship and Relationship with God
00:12:51
Speaker
in that moment. And to me, that may be a real indication your your relationship with Jesus is out of whack. Yeah.
00:12:57
Speaker
I think we talked about this at the the last meeting with the guys, but um you mentioned like most of these ah instances in scripture that talk about worship, it's a command. It's not like ah it's not like a suggestion option or an option. yeah God is saying like, this is what I want you to do. Yes. And we're called to you know say, yes, you know that's what I'm going to do. yep um So one thing I think it's important we we acknowledge here, God does not command us to worship because God's a narcissist or he has a big head or a big ego. He commands us to worship for what reason?
00:13:34
Speaker
He wants that relationship. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. he want He wants this really unique relationship with us. And I think he also, because he created us, he knows us inside and out better than we know ourselves. He also knows what worship does for us. Yeah. Yeah. It keeps us at a proper place of humility before him. It restores our souls.
00:13:53
Speaker
uh sometimes it brings clarity and confusion there's all kinds of things and i'm i'm sure you could probably add that to your next teaching class let's go talk about all the things worship does for you yeah um because it's it's again it's not necessarily for him god is complete in and of himself he is self-sufficient he doesn't need our worship for that purpose he asks us to worship commands us to worship Yeah, because he knows what it does for us. Yeah. And there's it goes on one hand and at the other. Like he he sometimes commands us because we need that command like, oh, I know what to do in this situation is to worship. And then other times, I mean, you see it through all throughout the Bible when someone came and had an encounter with God, they naturally hit the deck face first in worship. Right. Yeah. and You see that picture that King saying, hey, bow down to me and worship. Right. um Yes. The king is saying a command about an worship.
Healing Power of Worship
00:14:41
Speaker
but someone who really acknowledges who christ is in their life it's almost involuntarily that you're saying this is who i worship and it's in it and it's a love relationship it's pretty amazing yeah any other thoughts before we wrap it up today um i would just say like over time you know i grew up uh leading worship from a young age but um
00:15:04
Speaker
you know God tested that over time to see, like, oh, are you really going to continue to worship me? Like that Job instance. And for me, ah the the main time where I was tested was when my dad passed away in a car accident. And was there with him when it happened. And even in those very moments after he passed away, i could hear God asking me, like, are you going to still trust me? You know, sitting in the ambulance waiting to see what's going to happen. Are you still trusting me? Do you still believe that, you know, I'm good and that this is part of my plan for your life? And um it felt like one of those Job moments for me. um So I feel like, you know, God will test us and question us. Are we going to worship Him no matter what? Even when it's in rough situations, like, you know, Paul and Silas being thrown in jail. And ah I think of just the disciples in general, ah the ways that Each of them died and you know the fact that they stood up for their faith, even in those moments, was proof of what they really worshipped and were willing to stand I'm glad you brought that up because I i had that same, ah very similar experience with the loss of my wife and son when I was going through that at the very end of that tragedy.
00:16:19
Speaker
Over and over again, I kept being reminded... I think by God's spirit, just saying to me, come back to me, you coming back to me. Cause if I, if you keep trusting me, I'll get you through this, you know? Yeah. So worship became a really healing thing
Conclusion and Invitation to Participate
00:16:33
Speaker
for me.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yeah. That's good. Um, good stuff guys. Um, if you got questions about worship, let me encourage you to reach out to somebody, our staff. I know Jaden would be honored to talk to you about it. Any one of our staff guys would do that. Um, worship is a key part of how we stay grounded in our faith. It keeps our eyes off of the things around us. It keeps our priorities in line. It keeps our relationship open to the God that we heavily depend on. And then, of course, it keeps us anchored into truth. Because when we worship, in the sense that we normally think of it, prayers, sermons, those kinds of things, those are timeless truths that are being fed into our soul over and over and over again. So again, Jayden, thanks for joining us today. But thanks for what you do in leading our church in worship. If you want to come be a part of a great worship, i encourage you at 8, 9, 30, and 11 on Sunday mornings. We would love to have you come and be part of it. I'll throw even another little plug in there. If you are musically talented, worship-wise, we are always looking for new folks to join our team. If you are talented technical-wise, that's a big part of worship these days. If you want to help out with doing AV production for us, those kinds of things, talk to these guys.
00:17:44
Speaker
Jaden here and then my man Jeff behind the camera here. He'll be happy to talk to you and and get you connected. um Anything else you want to add? That's it Awesome. yeah Like, share, follow us. We'd love to see you back here next week. And who knows what our topic will be. That's right. I'm sure we'll have some good conversation around the table. So see you next week.