What is Worship?

Worship is our response both personal and corporate to God for Who He is and what He has done expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.

“Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3 ESV

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not light useless fires on My altar!” Malachi 1:10 ESV

What is our Goal?

The goal of a Calvary lead worshiper is to be a worshiper and effectively lead others into the presence of God where they can respond appropriately to His greatness and glory, be intimately touched by his nearness, and be powerfully changed into His likeness.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

What is our Method?

Our worship is to be specific and intentional. Our words, our songs, our prayers and the scripture we use need to direct ourselves and the congregation to the Cross of Christ and the Throne of God; remembering the pain and sin that brought us to the Cross, what Christ did on the Cross, the overflowing life, joy and beauty that have come from the Cross, and the future hope of an eternity spent with Him because of His sacrifice on the Cross.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” Romans 3:23-26 ESV

We are to stand behind the Cross and point to the Cross. We are to remember the Cross in all we do. We are to live in the shadow of the Cross and be overcome by the power and presence of what was accomplished on the Cross and. Christ not only has the power to raise life from the dead, both spiritually and physically, but he also had the power to raise Himself from the grave. Death had no hold on him and he has offered that same life to us.

“… but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 ESV

And as a result, our response is to lift his name in Praise and Worship. Worship does not mean music, though. Music is merely a medium in which we worship. Worship is song, the reading of Scripture, prayer, looking at a sunset. But more specifically, worship is a response to our Creator for who He is and what He has done, because He alone is worthy.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” John 4:23 ESV

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 ESV