Worship as Shared Meals of God's Mercy

The first one we looked at was Abraham.

The first use of this word worship in the whole of the Bible is tied to Abraham when he has three visitors come and he hosts them.

And we looked at it, he's not even convinced, he's not even certain it's God.

But he decides, do you know what, I'm going to welcome in what I think might be God, I'm going to host him.

And he bows down, he says to worship, that word worship, first time it's used in the scriptures.

And he cooks a meal for God.

He cooks some goat curry and they eat it together.

And this idea of worship being like an extended time of like, God, you're coming.

Here you are.

Let me welcome your presence and let me attend to you and let us have time together.

That's a key image of worship.

The second image of worship, we've got a silhouette of Zach in the middle of a worship moment.

which is David.

David brought a new thing to worship.

Before David, music wasn't a thing.

Worship was just a time of prayer or food.

But with David, he brings music and reverential joy and this idea that we begin to celebrate God.

We bring what we've got creatively and deliberately, even if it's undignified, even if others look at us and think, what are they doing? There's a joy in God's heart when people bring this kind of reverential joy to him.

And that's the second theme of worship through the Old Testament.

And then last week, we looked at how Solomon then brings together this third theme of worship, which is this theme of surrender.

He calls the people together, the elders together to this temple.

And he says, let's surrender ourselves to God.

Let's almost like enthrone him that he is the true king.

I've got responsibilities, but he's the one above it all, and we surrender to him.

And so if you track through the Old Testament, God's been really clear what he wants worship to be.