What is true Worship?
Romans 12:1 NKJV
[1] I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
Worship In Greek is proskuneo which means to fall down and before or to bow down before.
The definition of Worship is the act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; or the reverence and homage paid to him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like.
In Romans Paul gives us an example of how we are to Worship a Holy God.
In the ESV Translation the Romans 12 reads like this;
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 ESV
We have to understand that Worship isn’t just a song. Worship isn’t just an emotion or an act. Worship is a lifestyle.
What is our motivation to sing Worship songs?
The very first thing that should motivate us to Worship a Holy God is His un deserved mercies towards us.
His mercy and His Goodness should be at the top of the list of why we sing praise to the Lord.
What He has saved us from should be seared into our hearts with a gratitude that we can never fullfill, but try through Worship!
We have to be careful that we are not just here singing songs about our grief and hard times. We must exalt the Lord for what He has done in our lives. Worship music should never put us on the pedestal.
There’s a lot of me and I in many, many contemporary worship music that won’t even mention the name of Jesus! Be very careful!
The focus has changed from an all Powerful, merciful God that saves us from Damnation to something that sounds like a self help book. The emphasis on the Blood that cleans the dirtiest sinner has gone by the wayside. And songs are sung to make us feel good about ourselves. We should always be mindful of why we Worship.
His everlasting Eternal love, that Eternal grace He gives. The peace He gives, joy, His faithfulness, the comfort, His strength, wisdom, hope, patience, kindness, honor, glory, righteousness, security, eternal life, forgiveness, reconciliation. This list will go on for an eternity, if you know Who you worship!
It’s the understanding of these gifts which no one deserves and what Jesus went through for us to have these has to be our main motivation to praise HIM, to Thank HIM and to Honor HIM!
And when we stand before a Holy and Just God we have to make sure that our hearts and our minds are in the forward motion of total self depravity and truly wanting to worship Him in the right manner of the worship that He deserves.
We should present our bodies, our lives as a Holy Sacrifice. Present everything to Jesus as a Holy sacrifice to Him. It belongs to Him anyway. He has created. He has redeemed and He will glorify it. Our bodies means everything. Not just our physical beings but our Spiritual, our thoughts, our emotions, our attitudes.
Worship Him by renewing your mind. The only way to do that is by His Word. To know the truth. To seek the truth. To live the truth. But also to believe the Truth.
Music has nothing to do with worship. Music can’t produce worship, but it can and does produce emotion. Music is not the origin of worship, but it can be the expression of it. Do not look to music to induce your worship!
We must see and look to music simply as an expression of what is in your heart that sings and shouts of the mercies of God!
True worship is God-centered worship. People tend to get caught up in where they should worship, what music they should sing in worship, and how their worship looks to other people. When we start focusing on these things we miss the point.
Don’t be misguide from the reason we worship. And many people, if not most people don’t know what true Worship is. And that is the responsibility and the gift and the Honor the Lord has given to those that lead the people of God in this Holy time!
They are lead them into a lifestyle of Worship that’s honoring to the Father.
Jesus tells us that true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth!
To me this is the ultimate form worship and something that we should be looking forward to for an eternity!
Revelation 4:1-11 NKJV
[1] After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” [2] Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. [3] And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. [4] Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. [5] And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. [6] Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. [7] The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. [8] The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” [9] Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, [10] the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: [11] “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”
So today when you bow your head, raise your hands or fall to your knees, be sure that your heart, your thoughts , down to every fiber is honoring, praising and worshiping a God that is Holy! Remeber don’t just worship Jesus for what He saved you from! Worship Him because He was the only One ever able to do it.
Practice now saints, because this is what we will doing for an Eternity at the Throne of God!
Pastor Ed
