Pastor Josiah Nordgren
November 11, 2018 - W1845

Super good to be here—it's truly an honor to speak with you this weekend! We will continue our Closer series; last weekend, Pastor Jon Burgess opened the series and challenged us to actually carve out time to be alone with the Lord. Today, we'll talk about seven different spiritual disciplines, and how to draw near to Jesus in Worship.

Worship is a wide topic because everything that we do can be worship unto the Lord; so, I want to narrow our focus to the time just before the message—when we come together and sing together as one! Worship is very important, but if we do not fully understand it, we will miss out on a beautiful opportunity to connect with God. Here's the reality:

Worship Aligns Our Hearts And Makes Us Aware Of God’s Presence

Worship takes all of my attention, passion, and energy, and directs them all to the Lord! Worship also steadies my wavering heart and sets everything back into perspective!

Getting closer to Jesus doesn't always come naturally; it comes intentionally! If you would treat the 20 minutes before the sermon differently each week, I promise you, you’ll see a change in the other 10,040 minutes in your week! The best way to understand the power of worshiping together is to understand why we do what we do. Why do we lift our hands when we sing, clap, shout, kneel, and play instruments? It’s very simple—because the Bible tells us to!

The majority of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew; so, today, we will look at different Hebrew words for praise—some of the words have multiple meanings. My hope is that we will find newness and passion for intentional worship (by setting the table upon which we will eat), by preparing our hearts for God's Word!

Seven Hebrew Words For Praise:

1. Halal – To Praise With Your Voice.

Psalm 150:1 (NIV) says: "Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens."

Halal essentially means to praise with your voice. That's what boasting is. But we don't boast in ourselves; we boast in the Lord. This is why we sing and pray out loud. When you pray out loud, your mind and heart can't wander and waver as much because you have to focus! And when you pray or sing out loud, the beautiful thing is that you hear your own voice. I need to hear that God is good, that He is in control, and that He loves me. These words are not for me; they are for Him! But, when we worship the Lord, those words have a funny way of turning around and blessing our heart and soul! 

Halal is one of the most common words used for praise. It's where we get the word hallelujah, which means to shine, to illuminate, to speak, to sing, to celebrate, to boast and, also, to be clamorously foolish—to be a loud fool!

Clamorously foolish stems from those who do not believe: To them, we look foolish when we lift our hands, dance, clap, and some kneel in worship. But think about this: People have no problem looking foolish for the things they are passionate about. For instance, some of us turn into toddlers when we watch football, right? We will scream, yell, jump, and rejoice if somebody carries a ball over a line or not. They have no problem looking foolish!

When I was around 20 to 21 years old, after running from the Lord, I started back to church. One day in church, I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me, "Josiah, why do you have so much passion over there, yet you have no passion for me? Why do you raise your hands over there, lift your voice over songs that have absolutely no meaning to you, yet when it comes to your Creator, your arms are down and your mouth is shut?" That was the day that I became my mom in worship. The Lord has a weird way of doing that!

So let me ask you some heart check questions: Do you exude more passion for other things over God? Does your face light up when you talk about other things? Do you lift your hands for a gain? Do you raise your voice for a show? Do you sing out at a concert?

2. Yadah – To Extend Your Hands. Psalm 42:5 (NIV says), “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."

Yadah comes from the root word yad, meaning hand. When you take the whole word together, it means to shoot or cast as one shoots an arrow or throws a rock. It literally means to throw out your hands to God.

The psalmist wants you to surrender to God and experience victory at the same time! Think about it. Those are the only two reasons that our hands go up: As a sign of surrender, and as a sign of rejoicing in victory.

When we raise our hands in worship, we do both at the same time because in Christ we can surrender and proclaim victory. We can raise our hands in surrender: “Lord, I give you my life; I give you my heart; I need you.” We also know, at the same time, that He has buried our sin and won our battles!

Raising your hands in worship is a beautiful expression. There is no absolute right way to raise our hands in worship. I encourage you to do it. Not only because it's biblical and will draw you closer to God, but because anytime you do anything out of obedience to the Lord with the right heart, you will be drawn nearer to Him!

Posture is often an indication of the heart, meaning, if you come across somebody who's standing with their arms crossed like this, chances are they are very closed off to you. Our posture says a lot about our heart. And it actually works the other way around, as well.

For this next one we'll do two words together:

3. Taqa – To Clap

4. Ruwa – To Shout

In Joshua 6, the Israelites were told to march around the wall seven times and shout. We get both words in the same verse in Psalm 47:1 (NIV) "Clap (taqa) your hands, all you nations; shout (ruwa) to God with cries of joy."

It's believed that Psalm 47 is a martial song used in war. In Joshua 6, when the men returned from battle, the whole town would come out to celebrate and shout! It was a shout of victory in the Lord and (at the same time) a shout of triumph over the enemy! We clap and cheer because we are proclaiming victory in Christ; we're also clapping and saying to the enemy, “You have been defeated and judgment is coming!”

Think about how amazing this is! You may not have been aware, but this is why we clap in the New Hope churches: We clap all the time—during the song and after the song, and after almost every prayer. I'm convinced that we don't know how to end a prayer without clapping at the end. It's just something that we do! We clap and cheer because we are proclaiming victory in Christ! But we also clap at the enemy as if to say, “You have been defeated!” “Judgment is coming!” “Christ is victorious!”

When we come together as a church, we rattle the spiritual world. The Lord breaks chains, and does the work that you and I do not even see. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.

5. Barak – To Kneel

Psalm 95:6-7 (NIV) says: "⁶Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; ⁷ for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,   the flock under his care.” 

These verses call us His flock or His sheep. Kneeling is weird for us because it's not something that we typically do in our society. However, in other parts of the world, you would kneel before a king as a sign of reverence/worship: to invoke or ask for a blessing; a salute or to express adoration. Kneeling is a very powerful thing to do in worship: it causes us to stop moving, striving, running, and trying to figure it out on our own what to do. The best thing for a wandering sheep to do is to just sit at the feet of the shepherd!

If you're like me, I have difficulty sitting still, so getting on my knees forces me to do that. I can't run around and multitask while I pray. Even in worship, I can't sway to the music and get lost in that. Kneeling forces me to be completely in His presence. Would you do it during worship in church if you feel led? Would you do it on your own time with the Lord?

Kneeling was a lot harder for me. I wasn’t just worried about what non?Christians would think of me, but I was also worried that other Christians would think that I'm either a really bad sinner, or super self?righteous! I came to a conclusion one Sunday in church: If I'm worried about what everybody thinks of me, then that's pride. And if I'm struggling with pride, the best place for me is to be kneeling before the Lord. So every time I felt that wall, I would just go for it, and feel the Lord begin to undo all the chains that have been built up on my heart for such a long time!

6. Zamar – To Make Music, Often With Instruments

Psalm 33:1-3 (NIV) says: "Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him, praise the Lord with the harp; make music, sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy."

Zamar can mean to sing, but it literally means to pluck an instrument. The Bible tells us to play instruments and make music because it goes back to the reason music was created in the first place—to love and relate to God in a powerful way. Music was designed by God to move us closer to Him.

Have you ever wondered why a toddler just instinctively knows to dance; why songs can bring you back to a place in your life good or bad; or why songs even without words and lyrics can bring you to tears? You ever wondered why we play music and piano towards the end of the sermon—it’s because music has a way of moving us!

7. Towdah – To Sing Praises Together

Jeremiah 33:10-11 (NIV) says, "It is a desolate waste, without people or animals. Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom (in the New Testament, the church is described as the bride; Christ is our bridegroom) and the voices of those who bring thank offerings.”

We end with this word towdah because it is an all?encompassing word: It means to extend your hands; to lift your voice in praise; to join a choir and sing together; to thank God for all that is at hand and the things not yet received; it is declaring triumph over this present moment and the future, surrendering and proclaiming victory in Christ at the exact same time! When I worship the Lord, it exalts Him in my heart once again. Everything sits within His very capable shadow.  

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. How can you be more intentional with your worship?

2. What are some things you can sing out loud to the Lord about?

3. Where might you be lost? How can you kneel at the foot of your shepherd?

4. Worship is very important, but if we do not fully understand it, we will miss out on a beautiful ___________________________________________.