An Invitation To Worship

September 8th, 2023

by Pastor Andrew Wolfenbarger
09/08/2023

Psalm 95:6-7 - “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.”

Every Christian’s spiritual journey is different. God may be working with one man about prayer or having faith, while simultaneously dealing with another about a hasty spirit or bitterness. In my life, the thing that God has done over the last two years is He has made me keenly aware of my need to worship Him. Though this word is used a lot, worship is a vastly misunderstood concept.

My personal attempt at defining worship would be something like this: “Worship is the process whereby the spirit of man ascends in his view of God and expresses itself in gratitude, praise, and wonder”. Since it is a work that occurs in the spirit, it is not accomplished by getting more knowledge. It is a work that only God can produce within us through the work of His Holy Spirit. The more I grow, the more I realize how desperately I need a healthy worship experience. Your car needs fuel, your body needs water, and your mind needs rest, but what does your spirit need? It needs worship!

Worship is a gift to man. To understand this, we must know that God is not some selfish over-ruler who only wants people to tell Him how good He is. He is the I Am that I Am! He is the self-existent One who has need of nothing. Yet, He created us to find our completeness in Him. Through His Word, He paints a detailed portrait of Himself. Each attribute is noble, admirable, and good; and is in almost every case, precisely the opposite of our fallen nature. When we worship God, we are regarding the virtues and nature of God, and recognizing them as qualities that we would like to possess. Our heart catches a glimpse of His loftiness and our low degree. In this process, God develops a heart that longs for that which it perceives as lovely. As the old saying goes, “imitation is the highest form of flattery”.

In our verses today, God invites us to worship Him. We have a standing invitation because of our personal relationship with Him. As the Psalmist writes, “we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand”. Oh, how He loves us! The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep and He has gathered us unto Himself. He leads us and feeds us. He protects us from the wolves that would seek to destroy our souls. He is patient and kind and when we stray, He leaves the ninety-and-nine and carries us on His shoulder with joy back into the fold. Don’t you want to worship this great One? He has made us what we are and He alone has the power to make us what we could never be on our own. How great is our God?! Let us take up the invitation today and bow down and worship Him. Let us sing of His glory and tell others of His salvation.

The alternative to a worshipful heart is one hardened by self-sufficiency and pride. We were made to worship and if that is not God, we will exalt ourselves. What a poor substitute for the One who truly deserves our worship. So today, set aside a time and place to exalt your King and abase yourself for the Scriptures say, “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14:11).