One thing the [Church] body does and we do it together is worship. Would you explain two things? What worship is and why do we do it on Sunday?

Answer

Worship is simply praising God. It can take a lot of different forms. Any way that you praise God is worship. I really feel that the two key things in worshiping God would be to extol His character, or speak of His character. For example, in the Old Testament they worshiped the Lord by saying, "God is great and God is wonderful and God is holy and God is righteous and God is a pure God and God is Almighty God." And any time you recite the character of God, that praises God. That in a sense is worship.

Another aspect to worship is not just reciting the character of God and thinking on the character of God and meditating on the character of God but on the works of God. We worship God when we say, "God, You're the God who created the world. You're the God who made man. You're the God who parted the Red Sea. You're the God who led Israel out of Egypt. You're the God who restored Israel from Babylon. You're the God who sent Jesus Christ. You're the God who raised Him from the dead. You're the God who gave the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. You're the God who has done this in my life. You're the God who has built Your church here." In other words, when you not only extol His character but His works you are in a true sense worshiping God. Worship is a simple thing, then, it's simply our concentration upon the character and the works of God. And, of course, the heart from which worship comes must be a pure heart. God accepts our worship when it comes out of a pure heart.

You can't say, "Well, God, I want to tell You how wonderful You are and how thankful I am for You," while you're harboring sin in your life. That's mocking God. So worship must come from a pure heart. Worship in Scripture can include many things. It can include reading the Scripture. We have illustrations of that. It can include praying. Worship can include singing. Many times in the Old Testament they worshiped the Lord in song, extolling His character and His mighty works in song or in prayer or in reading of the Word.

Worship can also include the communion table because the communion table exalts the work of God in Christ on the cross. It exalts not only His work on the cross but doesn't the communion table remind us of His love and His forgiveness and His mercy and His grace and all those aspects of His character? So the communion table is an act of worship. You can worship God alone. You can worship God with a group. You can worship God with any size group. Worship isn't stained glass windows and organ music, worship is the attitude of your heart praising God for who He is, for what He has done.