What We Believe

Worship

True worship involves my heart. It is not just a matter of where you are, and what you are doing, but true worship is a matter of what is going on inside, in the human heart and spirit. True worship encompasses my heart. There needs to be sincerity rather than hypocrisy. There needs to be passion rather than apathy. True worship must proceed from a heart that is humble and submitted to God. External actions mean nothing if the underlying attitude and overall way of life are not right. True worship may touch my emotions.

True worship also involves God's heart. It is directed toward Him. Many times we evaluate our worship experience by how we feel--did it move us, inspire us, thrill us, etc. The key question to ask about our worship is not, "What do I think, what did it do for me?" but rather, "What does God think, what did it do for Him?"

True worship also involves my head. There needs to be thought rather than mindless motions. There needs to be understanding rather than ignorance. Therefore, our times of worship place great emphasis on the teaching of God's Word.

Jesus rejects worship that separates head and heart. Jesus rejects an ignorant worship--as sincere as the worshipper may be. God doesn't want sincere, heartfelt, but ignorant worship. We dare not separate the head and heart in worship. Instead, we must combine them.

In verses 23-24 the phrase "In spirit and truth" occurs twice. In both instances the two nouns, spirit and truth are governed by just one preposition. The text doesn't read, "In spirit and in truth" but rather "In spirit and truth." According to Jesus, the two go together. We are not free to choose between worshipping God with our hearts or worshipping God with our heads. Jesus says we must do both at the same time.

We tend to be people of extremes, opposites. We favor either head or heart. Jesus says that God requires of those who come near to worship that they utilize their heads to the limit of their ability, and they use their hearts to the limits of their ability. Jesus says we make a false distinction when we separate head from heart and say God only wants one or the other in worship.

What is the great commandment, according to Jesus? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Soren Kierkegaard described worship as drama. He insisted that the minister and choir are not the actors playing to the congregation as the audience; rather, God is the audience; the congregation members are the actors; the ministers and choir are "prompters" who lead the congregation in active response to God in worship (Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing, 1938).

If you show up in the average evangelical church on any given Sunday morning, you typically will be more of a passive spectator than an active participant. Too bad if that's the case! Even the very Hebrew and Greek words that are translated "worship" convey the ideas of bowing, kneeling, prostrating oneself. Worship is a verb!

Let's do a quick survey of the wide range of worship expressions in the Old Testament: sacrifices were offered as an act of worship (Psalm 96:8-9), prayer and praise were offered (Psalm 141:2), vocal and instrumental music was offered (Psalm 149, 150), clapping and even shouting was heard (Psalm 47). There are also a variety of postures in worship mentioned in the Old Testament: prostration (Nehemiah 8:6), kneeling (2 Chronicles 6:12-13), lifted hands (Psalm 134:2; 2 Chronicles 6:12-13), dancing (2 Samuel 6:14-16, Psalm 149:3), standing (Nehemiah 8:5).

So what's the point? Worship is to be anything but sedate and sedentary. As we gather on Sundays we participate in worship by: lifting our voices in praise, our hearts in adoration, clapping, reading, giving, listening intently, and ultimately, obeying. Heart, head, hands, all of who we are should be employed in praising all of Who our great God is!

It should also be noted that though worship is participative, it isn't necessarily showy and shouldn't draw attention to the worshiper. Jesus cautions (Matt 6:1-18) that our worship should be done for God's approval, not man's notice.

The first place that worship is mentioned in the Bible is Genesis 22, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. God was testing the faithfulness of Abraham by asking him to surrender the best he had, his son, his only son. The son that he had desired and prayed for, the son that God had promised.

God yet tests the faithfulness of believers today by asking them to surrender to Him the best we have. What is it that you and I value most, hold dearest, cling to above all else? If God were to ask for it, how quickly would I yield it up to Him? God asks His worshipers for that which is of value to them. Real worship is costly. It costs my time, my effort, my resources, my very life. David refused to give the Lord that which cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24).

Abraham was willing to surrender the best he had to God, trusting that the Lord would provide (3-10). And Abraham ultimately received God's provision for worship--the hidden ram.

What can we learn from the example of Abraham? If the worshiper believes that God will provide, he/she will sacrifice without hesitation or reservation. Worship is a response to my trust in God's character. If I know Him and am willing to trust Him, I'll obey Him in sacrificial worship--even if I don't fully understand God's ways. Abraham obeys God fully because he knows God well.

Men might be impressed by the size of a gift. God isn't. He looks at the amount of the sacrifice behind the gift (cf. Luke 21:1-4, 2 Corinthians 8:1-4).

Throughout the Old Testament, God asks for the best of those who worship Him. God doesn't want their leftovers! Sometime, take a look at the number of times the term "without defect" is used in Leviticus to describe the kind of sacrifice God is pleased with. Malachi 1:6-14 repeats this idea--God demands that those who worship Him give their best. He doesn't want their leftovers. Why? Simply because of Who God is and what He has done. Worship is a declaration of God's worth, value, honor. Giving Him anything less than our best would imply He is less than ultimately, wholly, fully worthy of all honor and praise. A defective sacrificial lamb implies a defective God! It also implies a defective giver!!

And so we see Solomon, at the dedication of the temple offering God 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats (1 Kings 8:63). We might be tempted to think, "Why the excess? Why the waste?" Solomon was thinking, "Even a sacrifice like this is unable to capture the magnificence of our God and the boundlessness of my love for Him."

And so we see Mary breaking open a costly and valuable vial of perfume--worth a year's wages--and unhesitatingly pouring it all out on her Lord Jesus Christ (John 12). She was immediately criticized--but not by Christ! He recognized that sometimes our hearts are so lifted up with gratitude and joy to God, the only adequate way of expressing our love to Him is by doing something extravagant!

This kind of worship is exceptional and extraordinary--it isn't something that happened every day. But nonetheless, it did happen. And God today may call us to worship Him in a superlative fashion and in an extraordinary way. If He does, we dare not say "No."

Having said all of that, we need to keep in mind that:


1. We're going to be predisposed to favor our extreme, be it head or heart or hands; mind, emotion or service.
   
   
2. We're going to be predisposed to judge folks who don't worship with the exact emphasis we have come to find comfortable. Not only do we judge them, we may tend to reject them, to their detriment and ours.
   
   
3. We might easily fall into the same trap the Samaritans and Jews did--of fighting about things that are of little consequence in the long run. This isn't to imply that doctrine doesn't matter (see pages 28-33). It does. But some doctrinal issues don't.
   
   
4. The only place in all of the Bible where it ever mentions that God is seeking something of us is John 4--this ought to tell us something about the importance God places on our worship!