Worship

 

  This weekend, Pastor Fred preached on worship and for me, when I think about worship, I tend to gravitate to John 4:24 where we are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth. We could spend several weeks talking about worship and what it looks like, but here are some observations. The first one is that God doesn’t need our worship and if He did, it would mean that He is a narcissist. God doesn’t need are approval or worship. Does He desire it, yes, but He doesn’t need it. Worship means that we are in a relationship with Him and that is what He desires and what we are created for. 

  My second observation is that worship is a response to something or someone. God did not create us to be robots who are programed to worship Him because that is the only thing we know. God gave us a free will which means that we have a choice to worship Him. Every day we have countless choices to either put God first and worship Him or worship something else. Worship is more than prayer, Bible readings and singing. Worship is how we perform at our place of employment, how we parent, to how we interact with each other, especially those who get under our skin. So here is my question, do we worship the Creator of all the world, or the created things in the world? Remember, worshipping the created is bowing down to idols that either we have or others have created to be more important than God.

  My third observation is that true worship will take us out of our comfort zone. It means more than singing songs that are not our favorites and in the style we can’t get behind. True worship maybe is switching jobs three years before retirement that has a pay cut. Or how abut adopting a teenager because they don’t have a family? In all honesty, true worship not only will take us out of our comfort zone, but it will often cost us something great. Are we willing to be obedient and have eternity in mind or do we care more about our comfort and safety? Worship doesn’t call up to be stupid, but maybe to live on the edge a ltlle more and be obedient in faith. What is that thing that God is calling you that’s way out of your control and comfort zone?

  My final observation is that worship is about who or what we love. Jesus tells us that we are to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Godly worship demands everything we have and yes sometimes it is hard work. Pastor Haven has a quote that he shares with the youth frequently of “when it’s the hardest to worship, that’s when you worship the hardest.” I have also heard that when it’s the hardest to be at church, that’s when you need the church and God the most. When we worship with all we have, it will be difficult at times but are we making it a priority? Also, what are the things that prevent you from worshipping with all you have? 

  This weekend was a great time of worship as a community of believers. We got to witness baptisms in each of the services and the awesome part was witnessing the eight youth who made that proclamation of faith through baptism. Baptism is our response or worship to what God is doing in and through us. We also got to worship by gathering together to eat great food and to raise money to help the Gilboy’s be obedient to Gods calling their life. I will close with this, we can not or should not only worship God in a vacuum or by ourselves. Worship is to be done on an individual basis and also with other people. Remember that God tells us to make a joyful noise, with everything we have and that it doesn’t have to be in the right key. 

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead