Worship: For the Purpose of Godliness

As we learn the spiritual discipline of worship, we will become more like Jesus and appreciate how worthy He is of our worship.

What thoughts does the word worship bring to your mind? is the connotation positive or negative? Why?

Think about a time when you really felt close to God in worship. What do you think made that time so meaningful?

Jesus Himself reemphasized and obeyed the Old Testament command

Matthew 4:10 (ESV)

10 For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”

This is when Jesus was being tempted in the desert by Satan

It is the duty and privilege of all people to worship their Creator.

Psalm 95:6 (ESV)

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

God clearly expects worship.

It is our purpose!

Godliness without the worship of God is unthinkable.

But those who pursue godliness must realize that it is possible to worship God in vain.

Jesus quoted another Old Testament passage to warn of worshipping God vainly.

Matthew 15:8–9 (ESV)

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

How can we worship God without worshipping Him in vain?

We must learn the essential parts of pursuing Christlikeness - the spiritual discipline of worship

Here are four essentials about worship

Worship is...Focusing on and responding to God

To worship God means to ascribe to the proper worth of God,

to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy.

He is worthy of all the worth and honor we can give Him and infinitely more.

Notice, for instance, how those around the throne of God address God as worthy of so many things

Revelation 4:11 (ESV)

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 5:12 (ESV)

12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

The more we focus on God, the more we understand and appreciate His infinite worth.

As we understand and appreciate this, we can’t help but respond to Him.

Just as an indescribable sunset or a breathtaking mountaintop vista evokes a spontaneous response,

so we cannot encounter the worthiness of God without the response of worship.

If you could see God at this moment,

you would so utterly understand how worthy He is of worship

that would instinctively fall on your face and worship Him.

And to the degree we truly comprehend more of God,

we will in turn respond to Him more in worship.

That’s why all the worship of God - publically, family, and private worship -

should be based upon and include the Bible,

because it reveals God to us so that we may focus on Him.

Bible reading and preaching are central in public worship

because they are the clearest, most direct, most extensive presentation of God in the gathering.

That is why I have moved the Bible to the center of the Lord’s Supper Table

It is the central point of our worship service

Martin Luther, as one of his Main points

When he tacked up the thesis to the door on the castle at Wittenburg

He divided his thesis into what are known as the five Solas

Sola in Latin means “alone”

The five solas are Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, and Soli Deo Gloria

In English it would read this way

By Grace, through faith, in Christ, From Scripture, For God’s Glory, Alone

IT is ingrained into the psyche of my being from Scripture alone

not so much because of Martin Luther,

but this is the truth of God and

For the same reasons, Bible intake, meditation and the heart of private worship.

Worship usually includes words and actions,

but it goes beyond them to the focus of the mind and heart.

Worship is the God-centered focus and response of the soul;

it is being preoccupied with God.

Since worship is focusing on and responding to God,

regardless of what else we are doing

we are not worshipping if we are not thinking about God.

No matter what you are saying or doing at any moment,

you are worshipping God only when HE is the center of your attention.

One of the challenges of being a music leader

is trying to find things that please both the congregation and God

as much time as I know Shannon and myself when I was challenged to choose worship elements

as much time as we spend in thoughtful prayer to choose these things

inevitably, there will be someone that doesn’t agree with what was chosen

and 99% of the time it’s a personal preference

rather than them focusing on God

If we were focusing on God,

it wouldn;t matter what songs were sung

or if we sang at all

Worship is…Done in Spirit and Truth

Before we can worship in spirit and truth we must have within us the One who is the “Spirit of truth”

John 14:17 (ESV)

17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

That is the Holy Spirit.

He lives only within those who have come to Christ in repentance and faith.

Without Him true worship will not happen.

Having the Holy Spirit residing within

does not guarantee that we always will worship in spirit and truth,

but His presence does mean we can.

To worship God in spirit is to to worship from the inside out.

It also necessitates sincerity in our acts of worship.

No matter how spiritual the song you are singing,

no matter how poetic the prayer you are praying,

if it isn’t sincere then it isn’t worship, it’s hypocrisy.

The balance to worshiping in spirit is to worship in truth.

Worship in truth is worship according to the truth of scripture.

We worship God as He is revealed in the Bible,

not as we might want Him to be.

We worship Him according to the truth of who He says He is.

Worship according to the truth of scripture

also means to worship God in the ways to which He has given His approval in Scripture.

In other words, we should do in the worship of God

what God says in the Bible we should do in worship.

So we must worship in both spirit and in truth,

with both heart and head,

with both emotion and thought.

If we worship with too much emphasis on spirit

we will be mushy and weak on the truth,

worshipping mainly according to feelings.

That can lead anywhere from lazy, unthinking tolerance of anything in worship at one extreme

to uncontrollable spiritual wildfire on the other.

But if we overemphasize worship in truth

and minimize worship in spirit,

hen our worship will be taut, grim, and icily predictable.

Worship is…Expected, Both Publicly and Privately

Hebrews 10:23–25 (ESV)

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

God expects His people to participate regularly in worship gatherings with other believers,

warning specifically about “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.”

The church of Jesus Christ is not a collection of isolationists.

The New Testament describes the church with metaphors like flock, body, structure, and household,

each of which implies a relationship between individual units and a larger whole.

Furthermore, the blessing of a consistent, high quality, personal devotional life

doesn’t exempt one from worshiping with other believers.

Your devotional experiences may rival those of Jonathan Edwards or Billy Graham,

but you need corporate worship as much as they and these Jewish Christians in Hebrews 10:25 did.

There’s an element of worship and the Christian life that can never be experienced in private worship or by watching worship.

I remember the first time we came back from COVID

Even though we had to distance ourselves

even though we were in masks

even though it was every other pew

the emotions of being back together after a few months of begin separated was overwhelming

On the other hand, no matter how fulfilling or sufficient our regular public worship celebration seems,

there are experiences with God that He gives only in our private worship.

Jesus participated faithfully in the public worship of God at the synagogue each Sabbath.

Luke 4:16 (ESV)

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.

and at the stated assemblies of Israel at the temple in Jerusalem. In addition to that, however, Luke observed that Jesus

Luke 5:16 (ESV)

16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

As Matthew Henry would put it “Public worship will not excuse us from secret worship.”

We must not forget, however, that God expects us to worship privately so He can bless us.

We minimize our joy when we neglect the daily worship of God in private.

Think of it: The Lord Jesus Christ stands ready to meet with you privately for as long as you want; willing - even eager - to meet with us every day!

Worship Is…A Discipline to be Cultivated

Matthew 4:10 (ESV)

10 For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”

To worship God throughout a lifetime requires discipline.

Without discipline, our worship of God will be thin and inconsistent.

Certainly though, worship must be much more than discipline,

more that simply the proper expression of the correct words and forms.

I think about those that run through the Lord’s prayer every Sunday

or those that recite the Apostle’s Creed

Even our sending verse at the end of the morning service can become dead

Songs that are sung without thought to the words

or songs that won’t get sung because someone doesn’t like the music

All of these can be discipline without emotion

True worship also exudes evident of “heartprints.”

Worship can’t be calculated or produced.

Instead it is evoked;

it’s the response of a heart evoked by the beauty, glory, and allure pf the object of your mental focus - Holy God.

And yet, we also must consider worship a Discipline,

a Discipline that must be cultivated, just as all relationships must in in order for them to remain healthy and grow.

Worship is a Spiritual Discipline insofar as it is both and end and a means.

The worship of God is an end in itself because to worship, as we’ve defined it,

is to focus on and respond to God.

There is no higher goal or greater spiritual pleasure that focusing on and responding to God.

John Piper wrote in his book, “Let the Nations Be Glad”

Missions exists because worship doesn’t, John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad

But worship is also a means in the sense that is is a means to godliness.

The more we truly worship God,

the more - through and by means of worship - we become like Him.

The worship of God makes believers more godly because people become like their focus.

We emulate what we think about.

If we would be godly, we must focus on God.

Godliness requires disciplined worship.