Biblical Worship

True worship is a matter of the heart. It is our expression of our love for God and thus comes from the heart. If worship doesn’t come from the heart it is rejected by God. “The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." (Isa. 29:13-14, NIV).

True and authentic worship requires the utmost seriousness at all times. True worship involves having the right attitude in one’s mind and actions. We cannot worship in the true sense if our attitude is frivolous and our approach to God is offhand and routine. Worship is not something we attend as a spectators sport, it is an activity that needs to involve our entire selves. We are to engage our complete interest and participation. On the other hand if we try to worship God for the sake of some reward that we may accrue, worship ceases to be worship. A person worships God purely for the sake of worshiping God.

Worship is to be the highest priority of the Christian and the church. The church has many duties, among them are benevolence, evangelism, and discipleship. But none of these duties take priority over worship. Worship is the only activity of the church that will survive into eternity. Worship is not just gathering with the church congregation on Sunday morning. God’s expectation of every believer is that the believer would spend time alone seeking God in Bible reading and study, prayer, confession of sin, meditation, praise and expressing gratitude in adoration. This individual private worship is essential for proper expression of corporate worship. Corporate worship is the gathering of God’s people as they together bow in submission and honor before God and offer praises of His majesty and glory. We are to feel in our heart and in some appropriate manner express a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe.

Because of our sinfulness, we no longer worship God alone. We have become bent on worshiping things that are by their nature not God, things like ourselves, physical objects, ideologies, etc. Our desires have been changed by sin as well and we follow them rather than God, submitting to and serving our desires instead of desiring to serve God the Creator.

God shaped and designed us to worship and we become what we worship. If we worship money we become greedy. If we worship power we become ruthless. If we worship ourselves we become arrogant. However, when we worship God we become Christ-like. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18, NIV).

The apostle Paul gives us a terrifying depiction of what happens to a person who refuses to worship God in Romans 1:18-32. Verse 21 in this passage says, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (NIV). In other words they knew God but refused to worship Him. Romans 1:21 shows that we all stand at a fork in the road, we can choose to worship God or not. Paul states in v. 21 that they knew God, but they chose not to give Him glory or thanks, and because of that choice Paul gives us a list of wickedness they indulged in. As Jeremiah said, they worshiped worthless idols and so became worthless themselves. (Jer. 2:5) That is still true today, we all stand at a fork in the road. Which way will we go? Who will we worship? Will we worship God and walk towards eternal life in heaven? Or will we worship ourselves or some other created thing and march defiantly down the road to self-destruction? We are conformers, God is the Transformer. We worship God because God is the personal creator worthy of human worship. He is Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being. He is the only true holy, righteous, just, and merciful God. He is the creator and sustainer of life. No person, object, or idea can be compared to God. God is a sovereign Ruler over all the earth; He is the Creator and Judge of all persons. The Israelites identified God as “the Lord God (Yahweh), the God of Israel” (Exod. 34:23). He is “God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome…” (Deut. 10:17).

The purpose of worship is to bring the worshiper so in tune with God’s reconciliation through Jesus Christ that His death and resurrection become a lived experience.