We probably all have some kind of mental picture of what it means to worship. Depending on your church background, when you think of worship you may think of classical sacred music - a great choir, singing the Hallelujah chorus. Or perhaps what comes to mind is the image of a traditional brick church on a Sunday morning, filled with people singing one of the great hymns of the faith - "A Might Fortress is Our God", or "How Great Thou Art". Maybe you’ve been to a charismatic or Pentecostal church, and you envision a scene with hands raised, eyes closed, people singing praise choruses, or even something more active - hands clapping, feet moving, shouts of "Hallelujah!" and "Amen!" Or you may not think of singing at all. Perhaps for you, the word "worship" brings up images of people sitting quietly in church with their heads bowed, praying or meditating. Or even someone bowing down or kneeling.
Well, because people have many different ideas of what worship looks like, I’d like to begin by defining what it is. What are we doing when we sing, or pray, or raise our hands, or kneel down? What makes those activities "worship"?
First, worship is attributing ultimate worth to something - whether it’s an object, or a person, or even an idea. Worship is valuing one thing above all else. It’s literally "worth-ship". So when we sing praises to God, we are worshipping, because we are proclaiming that He has the greatest possible worth; that His value is above that of gold, or silver, or jewels, or houses, or land. We are testifying that His power exceeds that of every king, President, or dictator in history; that the glory of his holiness outshines the billions of suns in every galaxy. When we worship God, we are saying that nothing compares to Him. He is above all, He is greater than all. Everything in creation pales to insignificance next to the sovereign Lord of the universe. Listen to what the Scriptures tell us:
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." - Revelation 4:11 (NIV)
"In a loud voice they sang: ’Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’" - Revelation 5:12 (NIV)
God alone is supremely worthy of our praise, and our love, and our devotion, and our service; both because of who He is, and because of what He has done. Saying that is worship.
The Psalms are the hymnbook of ancient Israel, and they are full of examples of worship and praise to God. Listen to Psalm 148 [Read Psalm 148:1-13]. That’s worship - to exalt and lift up the Lord for who he is and what he has done.
But second, worship is not just making an objective judgement that one thing excels all others; it’s actively desiring and seeking after that thing. To worship something is to make the pursuit and enjoyment of it the overriding goal of your life. That’s what Jesus was talking about when he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’" (Mark 12:30) That’s worship: valuing something so highly that you give everything you have for it. Listen to what Jesus said about God’s kingdom:
""The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." - Matthew 13:44-46 (NIV)
Worship is treasuring the things of God so highly that we will give everything we have in exchange for them. It’s an attitude that says, "whatever it takes for me to know and experience God, I will do."
Is it possible to worship someone or something other than God? Of course! In fact, everyone worships something, because God created us to be worshippers. It’s hard-wired into us, it’s part of what it means to be a human being made in God’s image. If we refuse to worship God, then we will be driven to find something else to worship. And so it’s not a matter of whether we will worship, but what we will worship. As Paul writes:
" . . . although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised." - Romans 1:21-25 (NIV)
As Americans, we live in a predominantly secular society, and so we don’t see people literally bowing down before idols. Most of our neighbors don’t have a little statue of Buddha or Shiva or Zeus on the mantelpiece. Instead, our culture tends to worship other things - money. Success. Physical beauty. Sex. Health and fitness. Safety and security. Recreation. Whatever we organize our lives around; whatever we put first; whatever we seek above all else; that’s what we worship. Fundamentally, we are by nature worshippers of self, seeking after our own welfare and happiness as greatest good in life. And so the God-given drive to worship is perverted; it is turned in on itself and becomes the urge to make oneself a little god, to place oneself at the center of the universe.
Therefore, my goal this morning isn’t really to stimulate you to worship. You are already worshipping, whether the object of your devotion is God or something else. But my goal is to help you worship the only one who is truly worthy of being worshipped: Jesus Christ.
Se how do we worship? What kind of worship pleases God? First of all, true worship comes from the heart. God-pleasing worship issues from the heart. Listen to what Jesus told the woman he met at the well in Samaria:
"’Sir’, the woman said, ’I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’
Jesus declared, ’Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. . . A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’" - John 4:19-24 (NIV)
What does this mean? It means that God doesn’t care about where you worship, or what kind of building you worship in, or what you’re wearing. And God isn’t fooled by outward appearances. You may appear to be devout, and sincere, and pious. You may sing the songs, and stand up and share during the open mike time; you may even teach a Sunday School class, or serve on the worship team, or help take down chairs after the service. But if your religion is external, if you’re just going through the motions, if you are not worshiping God from your heart, then it doesn’t accomplish anything. It’s empty. It’s worthless. God isn’t interested in that kind of pseudo-worship; he only wants the real thing. Listen to what the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah:
"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." - Isaiah 29:13 (NIV)
That’s not what God wants. The only kind of worshipers God has any use for are those who worship him from the heart, in spirit and in truth. If God doesn’t have your heart, then nothing else you do on Sunday morning matters. If you’re singing praise songs, but your heart is cold or lukewarm, then you’re not worshiping. You’re just singing a song. Do you know what I call that? Spiritual lip-synching. Spiritual lip-synching. It looks real, it sounds real. But it’s not real.
What then, do you do if you find yourself in this position? You realize that your body is here, and your mouth is singing the words, and your face is smiling, and maybe your hands are even clapping, but your heart is not engaged. The words are coming from your lungs, and throat, and vocal cords, and mouth, but not from the heart. Or you find the sermon boring and tedious. What do you do? Don’t wait until 10:30 on Sunday morning to get ready for worship. Unless you are unusually receptive spiritually, it probably takes you at least half an hour just to get warmed up, to get your mind off the bills you need to pay, to get your attitude adjusted so that you’re not stewing over that thing your husband said last night, or that thing your wife did this morning. It probably takes longer than thirty minutes just for the fog to clear. And by that time, the singing is over and we’re half-way through the sharing time. In fact, some of you are just checking in now!
So here’s what you need to do: don’t wait until you arrive at church to start preparing for worship. Get up a few minutes early on Sunday and pray. Ask God to prepare your heart. Read a Psalm. Listen to some worship music on CD. Start the process a couple of hours ahead of time. That way, when the singing starts at 10:30, your heart will be ready to worship God. If you will do that, it will absolutely transform your worship experience. In fact, you don’t need to wait until Sunday morning. Even better, start Saturday night before you go to bed. Pray. Read a Psalm. Listen to a worship CD. Or even better than that, don’t wait until Saturday night. If you really want to be prepared to worship on Sunday morning, then you need to be synchronizing your heart with the Spirit every day of the week. You need to be praying, and reading, and listening, and worshiping privately every day, Monday through Saturday. And if everyone did that, it would not only transform our worship, it would absolutely transform this church.
Let me mention another thing which may be impeding your worship. If you find that no matter what you do, you can’t seem to engage, your heart stays lukewarm, you feel that you’re just going through the motions - then you may need to clear away some of the underbrush. There may be sin in your life that you haven’t confessed to God and haven’t repented of. And there is nothing more certain to block your ability to worship from the heart than unconfessed, unrepented-of sin. It is useless to try to worship God when your heart is hardened against him. Nothing will change - no matter how long you pray, or read; no matter how many worship CD’s you listen to - nothing will change until you repent and confess. You can’t worship from the heart if you’re not obeying from the heart. So if you get here on Sunday morning, and the music starts, and you feel "blocked," you just can’t get started, then ask yourself, ask God, "Is there something I need to confess? Is there something I need to get right between me and God?" And then do it. Pray. Ask God’s forgiveness. Determine that as soon as possible, you will do whatever you need to do to make it right.
But perhaps it’s not just between you and God. Perhaps there’s something that needs to be addressed between you and someone else in the congregation. If that’s the case, then you need to get it right before you can worship. If you come in here, and sit down, and look over in the next row and see someone you’re having a conflict with, and your heart fills up with anger and bitterness, then you are not going to be able to worsihp. If you realize that there’s an unresolved issue between you and another member of the body of Christ, don’t wait. Approach them before the service, or during the greeting time, and say, "Can we talk? I need to ask your forgiveness for something," or "I think I may have done something to offend you," or "You may not realize it, but something you said offended me." You should do it even if you have to miss part of the service, because otherwise your worship will be ineffective. Reconciliation is a prerequisite for authentic worship. Listen to Jesus:
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." - Matthew 5:23-24 (NIV)
And finally, you may be unable to worship God in spirit and truth because something else, or someone else, has first place in your heart. And if that’s the case, you won’t be able to worship God, because there’s only room in your heart for one "first". That first place has to be occupied by Him.
I’d like to make two more points about worship before I close. First, although we tend to focus on the music, in which the emotional aspect of worship is prominent, in reality worship involves the mind and body as well. Listen to what Paul tells us:
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." - Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
So, for instance, listening to the sermon; giving your full attention to the Word of God as it’s being preached is just as much a part of worship as singing. Taking notes on the message is an act of worship. And it also encourages the pastor. Anything you to do engage your mind with the Scriptures is an act of worship. Asking me questions after the service (please - after). Discussing the sermon with your husband or wife. That’s worshipping God with your mind. By the same token, those who serve God with their bodies - setting up chairs, unloading the trailer, boxing up the equipment afterward - that’s worship also.
Finally, why worship? There are several reasons: God commands and invites us to worship, and our worship blesses and pleases Him. Worship encourages us and lifts our spirits. But the reason I want to focus on this morning is that worship is a transforming activity. I’m not talking about just coming to church, or singing the songs, or sitting through the sermon. That may leave you completely unchanged. But true worship, authentic worship, worship that comes from the heart, worship in spirit and truth - that kind of worship is transforming. It changes us, because it is a law of human nature that we become like that which we worship; we become like that which we value the most. Those who worship Jesus Christ will become like Jesus Christ. If you are regularly turning your heart toward Christ in worship, you will over time be conformed to his character, his values, his wisdom, and his power.
"And we, who with unveiled faces all [contemplate] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
". . . we know that when He appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." - 1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)
The more we contemplate the person and works of Christ, the more we lift him up and exalt him, the more we sing his praises and testify to his work in our life, the more we will become like him. It’s that simple. Do you want to be like Christ? Do you want to have his peace, and joy, and wisdom, and power? Do you want to know God the Father like He did? Then worship.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
