Youth meeting 110403: Heart of Worship

The guys and I had a nice time worshipping our Lord today and I just shared really short and basically about what worship is and is not about. I am no expert, but this is just some things I've learnt from serving as a worship team member.
Worship is something we, as Christians, do a lot. Not only in church but also in daily life.
Though, when we say 'worship', we often refer to the session at church or at camps where we all gather and sing songs together.
But worship is much more than singing together (or doing dramas or painting and so on).

Before I share what worship is, I would like to share what worship is NOT;
- It is NOT an entertainment.
- It is NOT a performance (showmanship)
- It is NOT about good music (though music can help us to focus on worship, like a helpful tool) 
- It is NOT for an ecstatic experience (spiritual and emotional explosion). We often get spiritual high during worship sessions, that is not wrong in any way. And sometimes we might not get these kind of experiences and then we might think "the worship was bad". But worship shouldn't be based on these kind of temporary explosions!
- It is NOT about the audience or the person standing right next to you. Sometimes the most genuine worship is done when you're all alone. Just you and God!
- It is NOT about you!

Worship:
- is about expressing our love and commitment to God and giving our lives to Him (once again)
- is about entering into His presence and bringing everything before Him
- literally means to "bow down" (in Hebrew), which means to acknowledge the holiness of God
- is about thanksgiving, which means we acknowledge the goodness of God
Psalm 95:2 "Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.“
- is about praise, which means we acknowledge the greatness of God
Psalm 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

WORSHIP IS ALL ABOUT HIM!

Songs that we have during worship sessions can be divided into so-called Songs of praise and Songs of worship. I think there are other categories to divide songs into, but this is a common way that we use.

Songs of praise: are usually up-tempo (faster) songs and are used to acknowledge the greatness of God. It's common to clap hands and shout of joy, during songs of praise, to show appreciation and express joy. Just like sports fans clap hands and shout for their favourite teams, we clap hands and shout for our awesome God! (Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.)

Songs of worship: are usually played in slower tempo. We acknowledge the holiness of God and fall deeper into His presence. Expressions that are common during this moment are lifting hands and bowing down (remember worship means to bow down). Lifting hands could have many meanings; lifting hands could be a way to invite the Holy Spirit to fall on you, it could also be like children lifting hands to their parents to say "Life me up, Father!" and so on. Bowing down means to humble yourself, showing respect to God, admitting His power and just surrendering yourself to Him. (Psalm 95:6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker)

Questions to consider:
- What kind of attitude towards worship have you had up until now? (Be honest with yourself!)

- What is the Heart of Worship? What should worship really be about?

We ended today's meeting with this song called Surrender. Because in the end, it is all about fully surrendering ourselves to Him and Him alone.

Peace out!

--Maggie