31 Dec IHOP (International House of Prayer) Worship Sandwich
As you know, we have been in a series discussing prayer. Most of the time when we think of prayer, worship does not readily come to mind. However, thanksgiving, praise and worship are every bit as much biblical prayer as making requests!
When I was a teenager I would “request” of my father to give me the car keys. When he did, I would give him “thanks”. From time to time I might give my dad “praise”… “Dad, you’re great” I would say. Occasionally, I would simply tell him, “Dad, I love you”…worship! This is a simple but profound way of understanding the difference in requests, thanksgiving, praise and worship. With the aforementioned having been said, let’s discuss:
“Six Wonders of Worship”
- God is seeking worshippers (John 4:23).
Here the Bible tells us, “But the hour comes and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” Now if God is “seeking” people to worship Him, that tells us two things:
- They are uncommon to God
- They are valuable to God
When I was a child I used to collect coins. I then had the privilege to come across a 1909 VDB penny. This penny was both uncommon and valuable. As a child, I treasured this coin. When I was 19 and in college I needed money badly and unfortunately I sold it for much less than it was worth. Why? I no longer regarded it as uncommon and valuable. Aren’t you glad God isn’t that fickle when it comes to worshippers? He will always regard them as uncommon and valuable.
The English word “worship” is translated form the Greek word “proskuneo”. “Pros” means face to face and “kuneo” means to kiss. Put this Greek compound word together and it means “to kiss the face”.
When my little boy Johnathan was just about two years old he would use the word “moonu” for the word “kiss”. So his mommy and I would say, “Johnathan give me a moonu right here on the cheek.” At that time Anne and I and our team had pioneered Joy Church and we were about a year old as a church. We called a work day to help a precious little widow in our church clean and rebuild her house. One of the older ladies (approximately 65 years old) was watching Johnathan for us and was standing inside the house in front of one of the open windows with Johnathan in front of her. He wanted to see his daddy. Well I started to say in a very demonstrative way, “Give me a moonu…give me a big kiss!” I said this over and over again with my big lips puckered ready to give away a big kiss. At the same time there was a young lady in our church who was standing behind the older lady but couldn’t see Johnathan. All she could see was her new pastor offering this 65-year old woman a “moonu” and “big kiss”! Needless to say, she was taken a bit aback by the whole scene! Boy, was she relieved when she finally saw Johnathan in front of this older woman! It’s been a big joke in our church ever since!
What do you say, let’s give God a little “moonu”! Let’s worship Him!
Next week we’ll continue our series on “Worship Sandwich.”