Why Do We Worship?

Recently I was asked to speak to the middle school class at my church.    In this precious class there is a worship team made up of mostly middle schoolers with a few of us grown ups.     Our goal as adult leaders, is to grow, encourage, and lead these kids in developing their abilities, strengthening their understanding of worship,  growing as leaders within their class, and building a community.   They are the future leaders of the church.  They are the ones who follow behind us and we do not want to miss the opportunity to pour into them now.    Once every few months we get them together after service and do a bit of a pow wow if you will....(busting out the old verbiage on that one lol).  We feed them, encourage them, and then have them take turns playing through a few different worship songs.   I was asked during this past pow wow (there is is again) to speak to them about what worship means to me.    Now if any of you have been reading my blogs, you probably already have a pretty good idea what I might say.   And at first, my mind went to many of the things I have talked about in past blogs.    But then I stopped and thought, "To really answer this question, I need to answer a question of my own....Why do we worship?"  
So I set out to answer this question for myself.    
I'm sure I have heard sermons on this a time or two in my life, but honestly, I don't know that I have ever asked myself this question with the intention of finding out what the Word says, rather then just inserting my own answers or reflecting on things others have said about the subject.
As I read the Word, and found Biblical reasons for worship (and these are only a fraction of the scriptures I came across on the subject), I realized that these were more then just nice things to share with the middle school kids.   These were scriptures that stood out to me like the roots of a tree.   Our walk, as we grow in the Lord and in the knowledge of His word, grows from this root base, into the trunk, branches and eventually fruit of the tree.   These verses are like the roots of the Worship branches.   I long to hide these in my heart, and meditate on them as a foundation for everything the Lord calls me to.   I hope they encourage you as well.


We worship to glorify His name-We are called to bring Him glory through Worship
1 Chronicles 16:29
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

We worship to obey-We are called as the righteous sons and daughters of the Lord to Praise Him in song
Psalm 33:1
Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

We worship to give thanks-We are called to reflect on all He has done and with awe, thank Him as an act or worship
Hebrews 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

We worship to fight Spiritual battles-We are called to wage war in the heavenly realm, trusting the Lord to fight the battle as we worship
2 Kings 17:39
Rather, worship the LORD your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."

We worship to lay down our crowns-We are called to humility.  To lower ourselves so that He can be lifted high
Revelation 4:10-11
the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

We worship in Spirit and in Truth-We are called as children of God to worship not in flesh and blood but in Spirit and truth.   It's not about our gifts, but rather how we use them.
John 4:23-24
23“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

We worship with a pure heart-We are not called to walk through motions or duplicate an experience.  We are called to invite His presence, glorify His name, and allow Him to move, regardless of what it looks like, what it sounds like, or what we have seen before.  To lay down our agenda and simply use the tools we have been given to praise Him.
Isaiah 29:13
The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.