INTRODUCTION
The Heart of Worship Bible Study Series

If cats have nine lives as the old wife’s tale suggests, many church goers would have to admit that they have at least two. There’s the life lived day after day in their workplace, social circles, and family activities. And then there’s the life lived at church; hands folded reverently, songs sung softly, and their almost-new Bible in their lap.

The truth is, even people who don’t think about it that way would have to admit there is some truth to that description. Though such a life can be comfortable, it doesn’t seem to rise to the abundant life Jesus promised His disciples.

Worship—the way the Bible teaches it—changes this paradigm. Once we understand that worship is more than the songs we sing before the sermon or the offering we give when the plates pass, the dots start connecting.

Life—the true abundant life we are called to live—awaits those who will pursue a life of worship that connects our pews to office cubicles and our houses to mission fields. Our call to make disciples begins with a call to worship.

The journey starts right here.

Bible Study Lesson
Session 1
THE FOCUS OF OUR WORSHIP
The Point
Only God deserves our worship.

THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
When it comes to celebrities, Bob Dylan is certainly one who is well-known. In fact, Dylan is one of the most celebrated songwriters in American music history. In the late seventies after a multi-decade career marked by drugs, alcohol, and hopeless living, he announced he had converted to Christianity. In 1979, he wrote and recorded a song that expressed his testimony and captured a profound truth about worship. Every person alive in that era reading this probably has the tune running through your head right now. Come on everybody, sing it with me …

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Mr. Dylan had it right. The truth is, our Creator made us to find hope and purpose in life through worshiping Him alone. No one else is worthy or can give us hope.
In the book of Isaiah, we see Israel learning this lesson the hard way. Hopefully, we can make the right choice from the start and worship the Lord. Let’s learn how we can worship the only One who can rescue us, the only One who deserves our praise.

Question 1: Who are some celebrities you admire?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Isaiah 40:21-24
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

Worship has a starting place.

All religions practice worship but those attempts start with manmade appeals to a deity in hopes we can be helped somehow. If we can do enough, pray enough, or give enough, we’ll eventually convince a god we don’t know to make our lives better. The problem with that understanding of worship is the reality that if we start with us, the god we serve will be a mere reflection of ourselves. In that paradigm, the classic hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” would need to be sung like this, “Turn our eyes upon ourselves”!

The only true starting place is the Lord. We don’t worship Him to get Him to respond to us—that’s what religion does. We worship Him because of who He is and all He has done for us.

The Lord is always where worship begins. We see it in chapter 6 of the prophecy in Isaiah’s own words: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (v. 1). When God is seen, He is worshiped. Since seeing God is where worship begins, then the help we need is found in understanding the nature of the God we worship.

In Isaiah 40:21, God was calling His people to worship Him by asking four great questions. He was not looking for information; He was focusing Israel’s attention. Each question brought Israel closer to seeing God and to worship.

• “Do you not know?”
• “Have you not heard?”
• “Has it not been told you from the beginning?”
• “Have you not understood since the earth was founded?”

We can hear the point God was making in these questions: Israel was without excuse. Everything they needed to know about God had been revealed to them. Yet in their stubbornness, they returned to their idols and rejected the peace God offered. Despite every offense, God lovingly orchestrated the plan to redeem His covenant people—a plan of captivity and judgment, freedom and restoration. Above all came the promise of Immanuel—God who is with us.

They should have seen. They should have known. Every question reiterates the point. What about us? How much more have we seen? How much more have we heard? Like Isaiah, we worship God when we see His power revealed. The prophecy still rings true today. Worship begins by looking at God and seeing glimpses of the invisible and infinite. In this passage, Isaiah gave us several images to consider:

• We see the God whose power made the world in the beginning of everything.
• We see the God who is Ruler of all and whose throne has no equal.
• We see the God who is so big, He causes all the world as we know it to seem small by comparison.
• We see the God whose authority and might transcends every prince on earth. No power can approach His greatness. God is superior to all.

Do you not know? Have you not seen? God is all powerful and deserves our praise.

Question 2: What are some ways you’ve seen God’s power on display?

Isaiah 40:25-28
25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

God had more questions for Israel, and these questions compelled Israel to keep dialing in their focus on God. But there’s another aspect of Isaiah’s description of God’s power that undergirds all of it. Not only did Israel need to see God’s work, but they also were confronted with His unique nature.

No other god created it all. No other god holds it all. No other god rules it all. If another with this power existed, our worship would rightly be divided between the two. But God isn’t one of two or of many—He is One. The only One. Isaiah didn’t discover this on his own. Return to Isaiah 6 and read the word of Isaiah’s own testimony about what he saw: God on His throne with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim were encircling the throne and shouting back and forth to each other, “Holy, holy, holy” (v. 3). Their three-fold declaration is more than a clever way to start a hymn; they’re an explicit description of this aspect of God’s nature.

Holiness is not only a pious lifestyle in the ways we tend to think of holiness. In its simplest form, the word “holy” means “other.” The angels were announcing with clarity that the God on this throne was the only One like Him. No wonder Isaiah adds “Holy One” (40:25) to the growing list of names given to God! He is like no other!

Think about God as Creator. He wasn’t following anyone’s else’s plan. He didn’t consult any other design. God alone created. He didn’t go to another place to find the ingredients either. From His own word it all came to be. Isaiah went on to say that God not only created it all, but He also sustains His creation by His power.

God made the stars and knows them by name. He even counts them! The implication is that a God who would know the stars and care for them also know us and cares for us. He understands everything about His creation and never grows weary of caring for all of it. That would have been a wonderful history lesson if Isaiah had stopped there, but there’s more. God not only was all that, but He still is all that!

A few years ago, I was asked to throw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game. Since I played college baseball and was in fact a pitcher for my college team, I was the most logical choice to represent our ministry with the first pitch. I’m sad to say that my once strong arm did the unthinkable—I bounced the ball across the plate! I may have been a pitcher once, but no more.

God is worthy of our worship because He has not changed. He is the everlasting God, the One whose power is undiminished. Everything He has ever been, He still is! God is all powerful and everlasting. He is worthy of our praise!

Question 3: What about God’s creation leads you to worship Him?

Isaiah 40:29-31
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

God has all power. He has the right to rule His creation. God is holy and unrivaled by any other. He has all authority and holds everything together in His hand. God revealed Himself in His creation and through His Word. The psalmist captured it perfectly: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalms 24:1).

If Isaiah’s prophecy stopped in the first half of Isaiah 40:28, we would be no better off hearing it. Yes, we would understand we have a Maker, and that we belong to Him, but how could we worship Him? Why would we worship Him? He would only be feared and avoided at all costs. Rather than longing to know our God, we would only try to appease Him.

Verse 29 continues with two grace-filled words: “He gives.” In the same way, God initiated creation with His word. He initiated His relationship with people through His pursuit of them. He initiated our salvation by working His redemptive plan through Immanuel (Isaiah 9). And God initiates our worship by giving us His strength.

Question 4: What are some ways life can wear us down?

Isaiah understood the process of drawing near to God in worship begins with repentance, continues with forgiveness, and leads to mission (Isaiah 6). The work that God did in Isaiah’s heart was a precursor of the greater work God would do for Judah. God revealed Himself, Judah saw Him and became aware of sin, and confession was followed by the cleansing fire. Then the voice of God was heard and complete submission to God ensued. What began with God’s revelation of Himself ended with the worshiper on mission. But God doesn’t leave us to complete the mission on our own. He gives us strength.

God went farther than announcing the coming judgment through His prophet. He did more than display His power in creation. At every turn, He has proven again and again that He alone is God. He initiated our salvation by sending Immanuel to redeem us for Himself. He still calls, reveals, forgives, and sends. He has not and will not change.

And yet, He does more. God doesn’t take the seat of the indifferent as the Deists believe. If He had all power but no love, He could rescue, but wouldn’t want to. If He had all love but no power, we would have His sympathy, but not His deliverance.

No, our God is our Father. He steps out of the bleachers to get into the race with us. He meets us where we are with His power, His grace, and His desire to strengthen us.

He deserves our worship as we are drawn in by His love. When we worship Him, He gives us strength. We can soar. We can run. We can worship.

Question 5: How does worship strengthen us?

LIVE IT OUT
Only God deserves our worship. Choose one of the following applications:

• The Starting Place. The worship journey begins with seeing God for who He is and responding to His offer of forgiveness in Christ. How has God revealed Himself to you? What attributes of God draw you into worship? Take note of those things as you worship this week.
• The Growing Place. Read Colossians 1:15-20. List all the attributes of Jesus found in these verses describing the essence of Christ. Select two or three of the descriptions of Jesus and locate other Scriptures or prophecies that corroborate each one.
• The Sowing Place. Do you know people who seem to be hopeless? How can your worship point the way to the God who gives grace to those who will seek Him? Begin praying for them by name and asking God to open the opportunity to point them to Christ where true hope and comfort are found.