A. W. Tozer called worship the missing Jewel. John MacArthur called worship “The Ultimate Priority.” I won’t even begin to try to do better than these two but I will put an exclamation point on their characterizations. I was once talking with a pastor who, in our conversation, said that the problem within a certain denomination was that they focused on evangelism instead of worship. That was nearly 30 years ago and I am fully convinced that the evangelical church is declining for that very reason. If we consider a previous post where we tried to prioritize either evangelism or discipleship (or both) and we look deeply, we can see that in doing so we would try to prioritize the effect and leave the cause without attention. The effect of our worship should be evangelism. If we start with evangelism we completely leave the why out of our efforts and just land on “because we are commanded to.” Which of course should be enough for our actions but it leaves us with little depth in our conversations with people.
Evangelism and discipleship are the effects of worship. John Piper stated this so well at the beginning of his book, Let the Nations be Glad! In a book about missions he said, “Missions (evangelism) is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.” Evangelism and discipleship can never effectively take precedence over worship. To put them at the top of the priority list is a misplacement of priorities in the church. What Piper explains in the book is that evangelism is an act of worship. The reason and motivation for evangelism is to create more worshipers of God. God is not receiving the glory HE deserves unless all creation is worshiping Him. Evangelism is not ultimately about people, it is about the glory of God and it is done on our part for His glory as an act of worship.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We have to look at worship more closely first. But even before that we have to clear up one thing. Worship has unfortunately often been equated with the songs we sing before or after a sermon. Maybe even songs from our Christian radio station. In our churches we often say, “let’s stand and worship” referring to singing but it is rare that we refer to other elements of the service or other elements of our lives for that matter as worship. While there is good reason that worship is associated with music, to equate worship to music is a tragic misapplication of the word. Let’s look at what worship really is.
At its core, worship is assigning great worth to something or identifying the worth of something but it goes beyond that. I identify worth to a lot of things but don’t worship them. I ascribe value to my vehicles but I don’t worship them. The same is true of my house. Unfortunately one may argue that my phone may be straddling the fence on this issue. But we can ascribe value without worshiping something. Worship takes that identification of worth to another level. If I worship an object I will sacrifice for that thing. It may cost a lot but I will sacrifice for it. I will act in deference to that thing. I will defer other pleasure, other comfort, other safety for that thing. I don’t just ascribe or identify worth to that thing, I ascribe or identify supreme worth to that thing. In a sense we can say that we bow down to that thing – maybe not literally but we hold it in such high value that essentially we become less and it becomes more. Very often we can think of sports teams in this realm but we can also think of wealth, position and relationships in this way. Consider the lengths many will go for their sports teams or for their wealth or position or even for a relationship. They will sacrifice money, time, relationships, their health or comfort, even their family for that thing of great worth. Their personal values diminish in the face of that thing. Then consider the personal emotional connection there is when there is a win or loss in that area, a game, a stock portfolio or a relationship.
The same is true with our worship of God but we need to add another dimension to our worship of God. In our worship of an object or a sports team, even though we sacrifice and act in deference to that thing, we still benefit. We do what we do for our own pleasure or enjoyment. We still recognize that we ultimately are equal to or greater than that thing and we hold the cards. In essence, if we step away from our worship of that thing, it loses value at least to us. If everyone stops liking a certain team, the value of that team declines dramatically. Much of its value is defined by our ascribing value to it. Old muscle cars are valuable because we define their value. Intrinsically they have no exceptional value. They are just old cars. Maybe “they don’t make them like that anymore” but the reality is there are are currently cars that can meet or beat their specifications. Old cars are subject to the laws of nature just like everything else. They wear out and the deteriorate. So the value of that machine directly matches the value I (and others like me) ascribe to it.
Because of who God is, that is not possible in our worship of Him. Because God is the creator of everything including us we must not only recognize that He is far greater than we are and simply because of who He is, He is deserving of far more than we could possibly offer in our lifetimes. For that reason alone He is the only one truly deserving of our worship. When we worship God we must come in absolute humility recognizing our unworthiness and ascribing ultimate worthiness to Him forgetting ourselves. Seriously, let me say that again. When we worship God we must come in absolute humility recognizing our unworthiness and ascribing ultimate worthiness to Him forgetting ourselves. It is the heart of worship. We come in humility and deference to Him ascribing to Him honor and glory. To be sure, we come with gratitude for His grace, with thanksgiving for His forgiveness and we come boldly as His adopted child but these elements surround our worship, they are not the essence of our worship. The essence of worship is based on the character and nature of God. And regardless of our worship, God’s worthiness can never be diminished or devalued. He remains the ultimate.
Many things we do can be an act of worship including singing but they are not intrinsically acts of worship. We can sing our adoration of God and ascribe honor and glory to Him in a song as worship. However, we can just as much sing about a dog in the back of a pick up or even sing blasphemies against God. The activity does not make it worship, the attitude and posture of our heart and the declarations of our mouth determines whether it is worship or not and / or who or what that worship is directed toward. Music is a powerful form of worship because in John 4 Jesus said that true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth. Music uniquely ties both of those elements in the lyrics of truth it proclaims and the emotion it generates or expresses. However, we can worship God in our work. We can worship Him in our studies. We can worship Him by giving and we can worship Him simply by acknowledging His power and majesty in the world around us. Again, the activity does not determine our worship, our heart, our attitude and our intent determines whether we are worshiping in these things. We may be doing certain activities yet not worshiping. IN that activity we may even acting in defiance of God if our heart is not right and purposeful.
There is another element of worship that is critical. Typically in the evangelical church, God is the subject of our worship. Listen to many of the songs we sing and you will hear it. Listen to our sermons. Often God is the subject of our song but we are the object. I never liked diagramming sentences in Jr. High School. And I certainly never thought it would ever be useful in life. But in this case I find it extremely important. If we take the sentence “Jeff threw the ball to Chris.” There is an action that is happening – throwing the ball. Jeff is our subject and really he’s not that important. What we want to know is who ends up with the ball? Who is on the receiving end of the action? In this case Chris gets the ball. He is the receiver. Worship is also an action. It is something we offer. Our worship needs to end up in the hands and at the feet of God. God must be the receiver of our worship not simply someone we are talking about. The object of our worship is the one receiving worship. If God is not receiving our worship we are at best neglecting our duty to worship or possibly worse, something or someone else is the object of our worship. We must be careful not to be part of unintentional idolatry.
So how is this relevant to the conversation we have been having about the church? It is not only relevant but it is critical. If the church were to focus on worship many things would fall into place. They would take their proper place in the church. Please hear me clearly. I am not talking about bands, music, lights, smoke etc. but true worship of God. First of all our focus would be a vertical, God focus rather than a horizontal human focus. We are intended to be the bride singularly focused on the bridegroom. Full stop. Our focus priority must be in place. When Paul instructs the church to be pure and spotless, we are far more likely to be be prepared when our focus is on God – in the right place. Secondly, as we keep our eyes on our Lord and Creator, our discipleship will grow exponentially because we are constantly getting to know Him and love Him more. But as unbelievers see our unrestrained devotion to Him, they will be attracted as well. More importantly though, the church will naturally talk all throughout the week about what God is doing in their lives. Evangelism will come from the overflow of the heart of God’s people. Imagine people as excited about God as they are about their favorite sports team, their favorite designer or their favorite ice cream. On top of that imagine hearing the life changes God is doing in His church. Why would people not be drawn to that?
Imagine employees going to their jobs and doing their work as an act of worship as if they were working for God. Imagine generous Christians giving in the name of Jesus as an act of worship to meet the needs around them. Imagine the sound of joyful Christians singing in worship in contrast to the songs of hopelessness from the world. Imagine artists and architects creating to the glory of God and medical professionals not only administering life giving medicine to patients but coming alongside them to the glory of God through the most difficult times in that person’s life. Then imagine all those worshipers gathering on Sunday morning in celebration of God’s glory but in utter humility recognizing the absolute supremacy of the God they serve. Against this, the gates of hell could not possibly prevail!
Worship brings God to the core of the church. God radiates in every direction when true worship is at the core of the church.
Prologue
Relevant?
Defining Church
The Purpose of the Church
The Radiant Bride
Worship
Worship in the Church
Holy Huddle
