What Is Worship Anyway?
Dr. Bruce Leafblad
Notes by Richard S. Dickson
Friday, July 28, 2006 6:30 p.m.
Church Music Georgia 2006

Exodus 33.7-18

• Worship is a meeting with God.
  If we are not meeting God, we are not worshipping.
  We may be an attender, spectator, participant, etc., but not a Worshipper.
• This meeting consists in/of intimate communion.
  "debar"(sp)(Hebrew v.11): speak, talk, communicate with, commune with
  Most translate with most common term instead of the richest.
  A dog can "speak."
  "Face to face" in scripture is intimate terminology.
  3 Intimate Expressions
  • parent-child
  • husband-wife
  • friend-friend
  
  Communion = with union
  "Not talking heads but connected hearts."
• This communion is an authentic conversation>
  Biblical worship is never monologue, it is always dialogue. Idolatry is consistently condemned as being a monologue. (Ps 115)
  Downfall: we design "worship" programs instead of worship conversations.
• This conversation expresses a personal relationship.
  You have lost biblical worship when it becomes a function.
  The essence of worship is a relationship acting itself out.
  What would last Sunday's service have been like if God visibly appeared 15 minutes into the service? Would it have changed or continued as it did?
• The distinquishing feature of this relationship is the presence of God.
  Before Moses moved from where he knew God was, he wanted the assurance that God would be where he was going and with him on the way. The presence of God was more important to Moses than even obedience.
  v.16 questions what else ...?
  • There is no presence likd God's
  • There is no absence of presence like God's
  • The presence of God is what distinquishes us from ALL other people on the earth.
• The presence of God is the divine gift by/through which we come to know God by experience.
  - not by any other but experience
  Many people in our churches have met God but don't know Him.
  Both the Hebrew and Greek words come from a root of sexual experience.
• Experiencing God in this way produces an insatiable apetite for His glory.
  No one in Moses' day had know God more, but he wanted more -- to know God is to want more of God.
• The glory of God is both the proximate goal and the ultimate purpose of all true worship.
• The life of true worship is appointed to all believers.
  Vs.7 "anyone who sought the Lord"

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