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A daily program. Powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing. I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.
Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. What is worship? What is worship? Why do we do it?
Why do we, as Christians, gather together in the church and sing songs before somebody gets up and preaches the Word of God to us? Is worship really about the music? Or is there something much bigger happening? I think these are important questions, and I want to hear from you guys. eight six six three four Truth eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four.
Welcome to Truth Talk. My name is John Galantis. I'm one of the hosts of the Clearview Today Show with Dr. Abbadon Shah, and I want to say thank you for joining me today. We're going to be having a great time today.
Dr. Shah and Ryan wanted to be here with us, but unfortunately, there are some filming projects that are happening over the next few weeks, so you're going to be seeing a lot of me. You and I are going to be hanging out a lot. Together and for the next hour, we are going to take a closer look at the truth of God's word. We're going to explore how the truth of God's word and worship specifically applies to our everyday life.
You know, our goal is not just to know what the Bible says. Right? Anybody can do that. Anybody can know what it says, but to understand why it matters and how it's going to shape the way that we think. The decisions that we make day to day, how we live out our faith, and today specifically, we're going to be talking about something that I think every single Christian has experienced, but probably I would be willing to bet probably has not taken the time to fully understand, and that is worship.
Why do we worship? What does biblical worship really mean? What does it look like? Is worship just about the songs that we sing on Sunday morning? Or is there something a lot deeper happening when we gather together as the people of God?
I know a lot of people will say, "Well, you know, worship is the lifestyle that you live Monday to Saturday," and that's true. There's nothing untrue about it. But I'm talking about when we gather on Sunday. Is there something deeper happening here than music? I think so, and we're going to talk about it together.
We're going to open up the scriptures. We're going to look at Ephesians chapter one. If you're driving, of course, just just listen. But if you have your Bible with you, if you have your phone or a paper Bible, I want to encourage you: open it up. We're going to talk about why worship is so much more than just music, just structure.
It is about recognizing the greatness of our God and remembering what it is that He's done for us through Jesus. Jesus Christ, and allowing those truths to to fill us with a renewed sense of wonder. A renewed sense of gratitude for what He's done for us, and hope for our future. And just for clarity's sake, I'm getting all of this. 100 of this material is coming from one of my pastor sermons.
This is Dr. Abadhan Shah, one of his sermons through Ephesians.
So a little bit later on, I'm going to play a couple of those clips for you guys from when he actually did preach this live, and then we're going to talk through them together because this is a big topic, and I think that it deserves some clarity. At the Clearview Today Show, we are all about making the Bible clear. We want a clear view today. You see why we did that? That's pretty clever.
So worship. If you ask ten different people what worship means, almost guaranteed you're going to get ten different answers. For some people, worship is just you know them good old hymns. Them good old hymns that me ma used to sing back in the so and so church. Oh, I remember me ma used to cry when they sang old rugged cross.
I remember that that old familiar melody. Them words that she knew ever since she was a little girl. Them them memories of sitting in the pew with my parents or me ma and papa, and and that's worship. For a lot of people, seriously, I know I'm kind of being facetious, but that's what worship is. For other people, worship is what we know as worship now—contemporary music.
It is a modern sound. There is synth, there is lights, there is flashing screens all over the place. There is lyrics that connect with our present circumstances, what we are going through in life, and songs that artists write to help us express our faith in the language of our generation. There is a lot of people out there would say that's what worship is. If I tried to describe it.
That's what I, or at least that's what I visualize. And then there is people who walk into a church and they see everybody stand up to their feet and start singing, and they wonder what in the world is going on. And I also think that's completely valid because think about it: to the world around us, if you didn't grow up in the church, like I didn't, I didn't grow up in church. Church culture, church worship, is an odd thing. Right, it doesn't happen anywhere else in the world.
Imagine that you're at work and you're about to go into a staff meeting at your job, and before you start, you know, going over those notes and looking over the projected revenue for the year or whatever, your boss says, "Hey, everybody, let's stand up to our feet. We're going to sing a few songs." Imagine you're at the grocery store, right, and you take all your food up to the register, and before you check out, the cashier says, "Hey, before you pay for your for your cheezits." And your cake and your whatever else. We're gonna sing a couple of songs. You might sing the national anthem at a ball game, but other than that, and maybe like a a concert or something. Other than that, there's really no setting where corporate singing happens anywhere in the world outside of a religious gathering.
So why do we do that? Why do we sing together when we come to church? Is it just tradition? Is it just what our parents taught us to do? You know, is it just to prepare our hearts for the sermon?
A lot of people will say that this is just you know an emotional warm up before the serious part of service begins, or is worship something a lot more significant? I want to explore that with you guys today, and I want to do it through Ephesians chapter one. And there's one thing I want you to keep in mind throughout this show. Ultimately, worship is not about how much we enjoy the music, and we do we love the music. It's about seeing God for who He is, and it's about responding to Him with wonder.
And I want to emphasize that word wonder. Not wondering, as in I wonder whether God's there. I wonder if He's going to do something, you know, in my life. I'm talking about wonder, as in marveling, standing amazed in the presence of God, and wondering at who He is. You know, recognizing that He is greater, He is more glorious, He is more powerful, He is more gracious, He is more wonderful, more majestic than I could ever fully comprehend or or take notice of.
You know, a few years ago, Doctor Shaw took the staff and our families to the Grand Canyon, and I remember standing there with my wife and my two kids, looking out in awe. And I'd seen pictures of the Grand Canyon my entire life, but nothing could ever have prepared me for what it was actually like to stand there—the size. Of this this hole in the ground, the depth, the layers of rock that you see, and for a moment it felt like for the first time in my life, I didn't have any words, I didn't anything at all to say. I just stood there, and I think what struck me was how small I felt, how insignificant I felt. Here I was standing before something so massive and magnificent, realizing that what I could see with my eyes was only a fraction.
Of what was actually there, and the rest of the complexity and the beauty of God's creation, I remember thinking: If God created something like this, and could leave me this speechless, how much greater can He Himself be? You know the psalm said that in Psalm 19 and verse one it says, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork." Maybe you've had an experience like that at the ocean or in the mountains, or looking up at a sky filled with stars. You just watched the sunrise on a deer stand or on your porch, and you say, "How can something this beautiful possibly exist?" It's those little moments that remind us how small we are and how magnificent God's creation is. But here's the other thing: is that biblical worship takes us beyond creation. Creation.
Right, it's not marveling at the creation; it's at the Creator. It reminds us that God is the one who made the heavens and the earth, and He is not distant from His people. Those stars up above us, the sun, the moon—they are distant, but God is not distant from us. He's revealed Himself to us. He has acted in history, and He's come to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
We're going to talk about that a little bit later. Jesus, how He dealt with our sin, He secured our salvation, He promised an inheritance that can't be taken away. And I'm telling you guys, once. You start to see all of that. Your worship is going to change.
Your worship is going to become more than a song on a Sunday morning. It's going to become a response to His greatness. And you might say, "Well, all that's well and good, but I just, I just don't like singing." Well, I got news for you. Heaven is going to be tough for you. Have you ever stopped to consider what that's going to be like?
If you don't like worship here on Earth, what makes you think you're going to like it in heaven? I know that's a strong statement. I don't mean that if you don't enjoy a particular style of worship, you're not going to enjoy heaven. I'm not saying that. I'm just talking about the actual worship of God.
So I want to hear from you guys. Eight six six three four truth. That's eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. I want to really dive into Ephesians because Ephesians is where we're really going to see what Paul is talking about come to life right in front of our eyes. Ephesians chapter one.
We're going to take a quick break here in a second, but while you're doing that, I just want to say again a big thank you to Dr. Shaw for preaching this sermon. It has really opened my eyes for a lot of what worship is. I think that it's going to open our eyes too. And my encouragement to you is this: Don't let the act of worship being and when I say worship, I mean the familiarity of what it is that we do on a Sunday morning.
Don't let it hinder what it is that we're actually doing as a. Don't let it just become routine to you, right? We're gonna ask this question: say, why do we worship? We worship because God is holy, and I want to hear from you. eight six six three four truth That's eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four.
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For today's special offer, visit renewingyourmind.org. Welcome back to the show. I'm John Galantis of the Clearview Today Show, filling in today for Dr. Abadan Shah. And today we are talking about worship.
What is worship? Why do we do it? What is actually happening when God's people come together on Sunday morning to sing His praises? Call in and let us know your thoughts. eight six six three four truth.
That's eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. We got a couple of callers right now. I'm going to get to you guys in just one second. But before we do that, I want to say that all of This content is coming from one of Doctor Shaw's sermons through the Book of Ephesians. Right now at Clearview Church, we're going through Ephesians, and I actually have a clip here from this exact sermon.
And I want to play it for you, and then we're going to talk about it a little bit, and then I'm going to jump to Billy, who is waiting patiently in the queue. Billy, stay right with us because we're going to get to you in just a second. What I want us to understand is worship together with the people of God is not optional. It is very much in line with God's people going back to the ancient times, going back to the people of Israel, the Jewish people, right down to us.
So what Paul is doing here is simply doing what has been done. Praising God is where we begin. Psalm 148, verse 1: Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His angels! Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon! How in the world can inanimate objects praise God? But the psalmist says everything.
Whether you have a soul or you don't, you have to praise God. Praise Him, all you stars of light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens and you waters above the heavens. Verse seven. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures.
Imagine those mighty sharks and dolphins and whales—they're praising God. That's what God has designed us to.
So worship begins. With praising God, verse eight: fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds, fulfilling His word. Mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars. Cedars are powerful trees. They're praising God in their own way.
Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children. Did God leave anybody out? No. Praise God. You see, that's what we're doing here.
When we come in here, and you have this time of let's all stand together and sing. What are we doing? We're doing what God's people have always done. You come together, and we worship. Amen, and I love what what Doctor Shaw said there.
God has designed His creation to bring Him glory, but what He's done is He has given us the church, you and me, something very special. We can actually recognize who God is. We can understand what it is He's done for us. We can open up His Word. We can read about His goodness, His mercy, His grace, and that we have a chance together, collectively as a church, to respond to Him with our praise.
What a difference that makes! I want to jump over to Bill. From North Carolina, Billy. We're talking about worship today, man. What does worship mean to you when you think about worshiping God?
What comes to your mind? You know, John, I bring a different perspective when it comes to worship because I was a professional tour musician for a while. Wow! Played in front of forty, fifty thousand people at times. Amen.
Praise God! That I'm actually a musician at Clearview. I get to see it every Sunday. I get to see how God uses the talents that He's given us, because music. Is the universal language?
It's the universal language that speaks to the soul, and and you can be down or you can be depressed and hear a song. It can be uplifting, and I see it in our congregation every Sunday. You know, whether people are singing or they're not, but they're moving and they're hearing the words, they're feeling the emotion of the songs. And you know, it's it's our way as a praise and a worship team to be able to give back. To the people of God, the talents that God has given us and worship.
To me, John, it's the ultimate gift that God has given me to be able to share that with our congregation every Sunday. Billy, I can't, I cannot agree with you more, man. I think a lot of people out there. I think they might be well-meaning people, but a lot of people will say, "Well, you know, worship's not about the music. It's, it's the music.
All that stuff is just filler." Well, let's not forget that God gave us music. Music is not something that we, you know, thought up. Music is not something that just happens to exist in the world that we discovered. It's just like you said, and I think you said it so well. Music is a gift, a beautiful, beautiful gift.
And I think this is where Doctor Shaw's point that he Is so important is that corporate worship is not something that we invented. This is not some tradition. You know, we we try to get rid of traditions so hard in our church. Worship is not tradition. It's not something that we just need to fill the first twenty minutes of a of a of a service.
God's people have been gathering together to praise Him for thousands and thousands of years. There's a sense of gratitude that comes along with that. Yeah, and again, John, music speaks to your heart. Amen. It's God's way of touching those people who otherwise may not be reached in any any other capacity.
That's right. I know many people that have heard a song when they've been depressed and it lifts them up, or if they're you know feeling a certain way, or they need to hear a message from the Holy Spirit, He shares that through the lyrics. Of the song, that's exactly right. Just God's way of reaching those who who otherwise would probably not hear the word.
So worship is an extremely important part of what we do at Clearview, for sure. Oh, absolutely, absolutely, Billy. Thank you so much for calling in. I appreciate it so much. I want to jump over to Tina, who's calling from North Carolina.
Tina, we're talking worship today. You know Hebrews ten chapter verse twenty four and twenty five says to consider one another, stir up love. Good works, and not for forsake the assembling together.
So we're talking about corporate worship together in the sake of the church. What do you think about that? I think it's a great question. You know, I've always thought about worship as singing or dancing wholeheartedly unto the Lord. And connecting with Him through the Spirit, you know, we can do that as a in corporate worship.
We can do that as individuals, and also whenever there are two or three or more gathered. And so, worship is all of those things. I also thought about, you know, worship as. Praising God through reading His Word back to Him. Yes, absolutely.
Spending time in the Word and praising Him and you know singing to Him His Word that He gave to us. That's right. That's right. I guess the third, you know, the third thing that I wrote down or I thought about was. You know, there's so many recently.
Last week, and so many other times when, at the beach, I stand with my feet in the sand, and I just watch, you know, and I hear the ocean's roar, and I just stand in God's awe, and and wonder, you know, and just praise Him for that, like. You know, he the the hairs on our head are numbered. Yet he created all of this. That's right. Very humbling.
That's right. It's it's a recognition that God is worthy. You know, how could He not be worthy? Because He's God. You know, we're we're talking through Ephesians chapter one, and that you know, Paul starts this whole book off with praise.
He's praising God, right? And and we don't praise because God needs our compliments. It's because He's worthy. Just like you said, there's this there's this distinction where. You know, if we treat worship like it's a transaction, if I sing loud enough, maybe God's going to give me what I want.
No, no, no. I'm praising Him because of who He is. Right, I'm praising him because he created all of this. He created me, these blessings, and we're going to talk about those heavenly blessings here in the second after the next break. But we are we are giving God praise because of who He is, His grace, His His His love towards us.
That's already part of His character. We're not persuading Jesus, you know, with our worship. We worship because of number one, who He is, but also what Jesus has accomplished on the cross through the work of salvation.
So, absolutely, I appreciate your call to. Very, very much. Thank you. Absolutely, thank you for calling. You know, I want to talk a little bit more about this as we are coming back from this next break.
But as we are doing this, something I want to I want to remind you guys of is we can't do any of this without our sponsors.
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We'll be right back with you.
