What God Desires from us in Worship - A Biblical Perspective

My research for my paper is hopefully going to be along these lines:

What is it that God desires from us in Worship – A Biblical Perspective

One explanation of worship is “an act performed individually or corporately within informal groups or a formal meeting, or representatively by a designated leader.” Expressions of worship may vary between faiths and within faiths. In most cases, worship will includes one or more of the following; prayer, sacrifice, rituals, meditations, holidays, festivals, sacraments, pilgrimages, music, singing, dancing, dining, fasting, public readings, and/or listening to a public talks or sermons. Worship can also include the physical as in the construction of temples, shrines, architecture, idols, paintings, furnishings, candles and images.

Whilst all these things describe religious worship, I would like to be more specific in examining the true meaning of "God centred worship." My thesis statement being ... What God desires from us in Worship – A Biblical Perspective.

I would like to strip away everything and do a progressive study by starting with Worship in the Pentateuch. From there, I would like to look at what the meaning of worship was to God’s people in the Old Testament and then though the Gospels and the New Testament.

I am hoping to clarify in my research what it is that God desires from us in true worship. How this impacts on us both individually and corporately, and what we can do improve our true worship of God.

My research is not to contradict our understanding of a worship service with all its elements, but rather to identify the place within this setting for “pure God centred worship”. I believe that the other elements of teaching, fellowship and witness should remain an important part of todays "worship services".

Trevor