Zach Neese - How to Worship a King: Prepare Your Heart. Prepare Your World. Prepare The Way.

I have been writing this book for fifteen yearsbecause I have been living it andgrowing in my understanding as a worshipper and as a minister. Having said that,my first gratitude must be to God, who has been my Friend, Teacher, Father, and Counselorthroughout my lifeeven before I knew He was.

Next, of course, are my parents, Paul and Cathy Neese. My mom and dad are the firstgeneration in my family to really seek the Lord, and they are the first in a linethat I pray will give God great pleasure and give hell endless headaches. Thank you,Mom and Dad, for your patience with me. Thank you for praying for me and loving me.God hunted me down because you put Him on my trail. And thank you for being the firstto believe in me and support both this book and the music I have made over the years.I love you and bless you.

I am so very thankful that Pastor Kerry Cathers saw potential in me all those yearsago and gave me the opportunity to serve in ministry. I had to start somewhere, andit took guts and faith to give me a position of leadership. Thank you. I am evenmore thankful for the gift of your daughters hand. Thank you for believing thatI could be a husband and a priest to your little girl.

Jen, thank you for being my partner, my friend, and my love. Thank you for your patiencewith the grueling process of writing this book. Thank you for teaching me throughlife. Much of what I know about worship, I learned from you and the kids.

Walker Beach, thank you for taking me on as your partner at the Christ for the NationsSchool of Worship and giving me the chance to train worship leaders from all overthe world. It made me take off my red, white, and blue cultural glasses and reallyexamine biblical worship as opposed to American worship.

I would like to thank Pastor Thomas Miller, Pastor Sion Alford, and Pastor Tim Sheppardfor believing in this message and challenging me to write this book. I needed thenudge. Brad Jackson, thank you for calling me a chicken and challenging me to writeit myself rather than through a ghostwriter. Todd Lane, Bobby Williams, and MaryZook of Gateway Create Publishing, thank you for stewarding this project and forbeing wonderful.

David Holland, my editoryour insight and encouragement have been invaluable to me.Thank you.

Pastor Robert Quintana, thank you for introducing me and this book to so many countriesand cultures.

Pastor Robert Morris and Pastor Marcus Brecheen, thank you for valuing Gods presence.How could I teach on worship if I were not serving worshipping pastors? Our congregationworships because their leaders worship. Thank you for setting the example.

Thank you, Gateway Church, for worshipping with me every weekend. You are the bestworship team I have ever had the privilege of serving with. It is good to go up themountain with you.

Lastly, I would like to thank Kevin J. Conner, whose books The Tabernacle of Moses,The Tabernacle of David, and The Temple of Solomon are invaluable resourcesscholarlyand thorough. Reader, if you would like to go deeper into the symbolism of the tabernacles,his books are worth picking up.

INTRODUCTIONWHY THIS BOOK?

Kevin J. Conner, The Tabernacle of David (Portland, OR: City Christian Publishing,1995), 171.

Ibid., 172.

LaMar Boschman, Future Worship (Ventura, CA: Renew [Gospel Light], 1999), 108.

CHAPTER 1YOUR PART TO PLAY

(accessed March 30, 2015).

CHAPTER 2SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Paul E. Billheimer, Destined for the Throne (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers,1996), 101.

CHAPTER 3WHY A TABERNACLE?

Robert Morris, The Blessed Life: Unlocking the Rewards of Generous Living (Minneapolis:Bethany House, 2004).

CHAPTER 4WHAT IS WORSHIP?

(accessed March 17, 2015).

Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-WebsterInc., 2003), s.v. worship.

CHAPTER 5TO KISS A KING

Don McMinn, The Practice of Praise (Irving, TX: Word Music, 1992), 95.

(accessed March 18, 2015).

Albert Mehrabian, Nonverbal Communication (New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction,1972).

Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages (Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 2015).

Richard J. Foster, A Celebration of Discipline (New York: HarperCollins, 1998),173.

CHAPTER 7BIBLICAL EXPRESSIONS OF PRAISE

C. S. Lewis, as quoted by Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward, eds., in The CambridgeCompanion to C. S. Lewis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 84.

The Hebrew and Greek definitions in this CHAPTER were adapted from multiple sources.

CHAPTER 8ENTERING IN

(accessed March 26, 2015).

(accessed March 26, 2015).

CHAPTER 9THE ALTAR

(accessed March 26, 2015).

CHAPTER 12THE GOLDEN LAMPSTAND

(accessed May 14, 2015); Ronald F. Young-blood, F. F. Bruce, and R. K. Harrison,eds. Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nasvhille: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1999),1000.

CHAPTER 13LAMPSTAND OR CANDLESTICK?

(accessed March 30, 2015).

(accessed March 30, 2015).

CHAPTER 14THE ALTAR OF INCENSE

(accessed March 30, 2015).

CHAPTER 15THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

(accessed March 30, 2015).

Tommy Tenney, Gods Favorite House (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2000), 75.

CHAPTER 16PREPARE THE WAY

James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company,1985), viewed at Google Books.

(accessed March 30, 2015).

(accessed March 30, 2015).

(accessed April 21,2015).

ALSO FROM ZACH NEESE

GOD & KING

From the writer of the popular worship songs Faithful God and The More I SeekYou comes God & King, the first solo CD project by Zach Neese, worship leaderand pastor at Gateway Church North Fort Worth Campus. This diverse collection oftwelve original songs captures the intimate relationship of a worshipper and hisGod.

Im praying that these songs will be vehicles that drive you to Godthat they willset melody to your meeting placesand that as they do, your world will change, too.

ZACH NEESE

Available now on iTunes and passages.gatewaypeople.com

I will send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whomyou seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, inwhom you delight. He is coming, says the LORD of Hosts.

MALACHI 3:1, MEV

Why did God want Moses and the priests to build a tabernacle in the first place?Its just a fancy tent, right?

The simple answer is this: He wanted to be near His people. The story of Mosesstabernacle is a story of access. God had every detail of that tabernacle plannedout, and each aspect meant something. The tabernacle was basically an illustratedsermon on three subjects:

Who God is (whats He like)

How we access Him

How we worship Him

God was very clear with Moses. He basically said, I want to live with My people,but in order to do that, you have to build us a meeting place. We see this in Exodus25:8 where God said, Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them (MEV).

God is all about access. In fact, He repeated His purpose in Exodus 29:4446: Iwill sanctify the tent of meeting and the altar. I will also sanctify both Aaronand his sons to minister as priests to Me. I will dwell among the children of Israeland will be their God. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God who broughtthem out of the land of Egypt, so that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD theirGod (MEV, emphasis added).