“You worship what you do not know” John 4:22
Is there something essential that is absent in Christian church services today? What should be of greatest importance? Scripture clearly declares that only God is to be worshipped; but, is it possible for a church service to revolve around someone or something else? “True worship” is seldom examined and discussed. Is it possible that true worship has become confused with “spiritual busyness” in the Sunday worship time by activities which are designed to excite, charge up, or stir up emotions. These things can result from true worship, but in and of themselves, they do not constitute true worship.
Is it possible that we have reversed the order in our “worship services”. Modern worship service “philosophy” often requires a lot of emotional stimulation to put people in a worship mood; so much so, that at the end of the emotional “high” there is only a big absence. Man’s worship philosophy believes that true worship can be “worked up” from outward activities, when in fact, true worship is rooted in the mind and heart.
True worship of the God of Scripture is primarily an inward state of mind and heart which may result in outward observable activities. There is a great absence of true worship today. True worship is exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit and not the work of some man who wears the label of “worship leader”.
There certainly is a great deal of worship taking place today, but the question is, “what or who is the object of that worship? The apostle Paul walked through the city of Athens where Athenians and visiting strangers spent their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. The apostle stood before them said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’” Paul then proceeded to preach to them the truth concerning the one true God.
Those knowledge-seeking people of Athens were very religious – they were engaged in abundant worship of false gods or objects, but it was not true worship of the one true God. They could not, by their own discussions, wisdom, and rituals find or know God. Certainly, they had objects of worship, and most likely spent countless hours discussing their preferences of how to worship. But, even with all their activities and opinions, their worship was useless because the objects of their worship were gods of their own making and imagination.
Is it possible that false deceiving worship has found its way into our churches? I fear that many people are attending worship services, but are being deceived or misguided. The popular objective in a majority of church services is emotion-driven experiences which are labeled worship; music, ceremony, ritual, tradition, sermonettes built around sad worldly stories. We have our shrine-monuments – our church buildings, and we could just as easily place over the door “To the unknown God” because He is not known; there is no true Scriptural worship going on there. Certainly this does not describe every church, but I dare say – almost.
This God of the Bible who is unknown by most people is Creator, Sustainer, Lord over all, Giver of all life, Ruler of history and over the affairs of men. It is in this God, the God of the Scripture, that “we live and move and have our being”. He is revealed in the Person and work of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless you know Him, in the true Biblical sense, – personally, savingly, intimately, – you are not and cannot, truly worship Him.
TRUE WORSHIP
Who do you worship? Who is the object of your worship? The object of your worship is that which occupies your mind, affections, allegiance. When we truly love something, we don’t really have to strain to find time to devote to the object of that love; in fact, a deep and genuine love and dedication produces evidences every day of the object of our affections.
A person can go to church on Sunday morning, sing the hymns or songs, sit through a sermon fulfilling their duties as a “good Christian” while all the time their mind and allegiance is occupied with something else. They went through a “worship service” but did they worship? Of course not, and this is nothing new. Note the words of the Lord in Isaiah 29:13, “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote…”
William Temple has defined worship in this way, “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” So, according to this definition, the worship of God is to have your mind occupied with the holiness, truth, beauty, love, and purpose of God. All these things are revealed in the Person, Work and Life of Christ our Lord. When we see in Him the holiness, truth, beauty, love and purpose of God, He becomes the object of our worship.
It is one thing to worship a baby Jesus in a manger, or to worship a saving Jesus on a cross, but it is quite another thing to fall humbly at the feet of Jesus who died, arose and is now seated on the throne of this universe reigning as absolute sovereign King.
There is one thing I have learned over many years in seeking to minister to people, and it is that the old flesh is willing to go through any ceremonial activity in the name of worship as long as that old flesh is permitted to stay alive; but in order to truly worship, the old flesh must be put to death.
The highest form of true worship of God is when the Holy Spirit of God reveals the Christ of Scripture and enables us to see Him for Who He is, –to adore Him, to love Him, to praise Him, to trust Him, and to enjoy Him; not merely for what He has done for you, but for who He is and what He is in His glorious being.
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”
Augustine
The Wonder of Worship
“Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand…” (Psalm 95:6-7)
Perhaps the great missing note in our “worship” is the awe and wonder of the triune God of the Bible, –God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We can go through all kinds of religious rituals, and all manner of “worship services”, and convince ourselves that we have worshipped. But the question to ask is this, “Has that experience changed me? A Scriptural change !” As Erwin Lutzer has correctly said, “Worship changes us or it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.” Warren Wiersbe states that change this way, “We become like the god that we worship (Psalm 115:8). As we worship the true God, in spirit and truth, we’re transformed to become more like Him. What we are and what we do are both determined by Who or what we worship.”
The big question is this, how do we arrive at this life changing true worship? We get there by meditating on the very person, nature and works of the God of the Bible. How can one not be struck with wonder, amazement, admiration and adoration when meditating on the divine Trinity? Who has the ability to put into words the wonder of the vastness of the universe God has created, the beauty of the moon, stars, suns, etc. How speechless we become when we consider the God of love, grace, mercy, holiness, justice, sovereignty, ruler, king, redeemer, etc. To consider the incarnation baffles the mind, along with the atonement, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even His promise to come again rattles our brains and seals our lips. Wonder of wonders!
These and many other wonders create within us both inwardly and outwardly the spirit of true life changing worship. But, the most baffling of all is the wonder of His love, grace and mercy in choosing for Himself a people who are spiritually dead, depraved and condemned creatures, and in coming in the person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue His people from eternal condemnation. He came and lived a perfect sinless life, took upon Himself the penalty of our sins, went to a cruel cross and died a death I cannot die, paid the penalty of my sins to satisfy the Holy righteous demands of His own Law.
Christ, the God-man; He is the starting place. Read His Word. Think about Him. Pray for growing spiritual sight to see Him more and more. Ask. Seek. Knock. Look away from self; look to Christ. Knowing and seeing Him is the path of a changed life and true worship.
There’s the wonder of sunset at evening,
The wonder as sunrise I see;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.
There’s the wonder of springtime and harvest,
The sky, the stars, the sun;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is a wonder that has only begun.
There’s the wonder of God’s revelation,
The Word who dwelt amongst men;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is that Jesus is coming again.
O, the wonder of it all!
The wonder of it all!
Just to think that God loves me.
O, the wonder of it all!
The wonder of it all!
Just to think that God loves me.
–George Beverly Shea